“I am deeply sorry and I apologise to him because I should have known better. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified.”
Schofield had reportedly first met the man, who is 30 years younger than the TV presenter, when he was 15 years old, but said the affair did not begin until he was much older and had begun working at ITV.
He also said he thought it “looked shocking” when an old photograph, featuring both him and the man who would later become his lover, emerged online.
Schofield told The Sun he did not “lie to protect” his career, but that the colleague “didn’t want his name in public”.
He said it began in 2017 after a “consensual moment” in his dressing room and it was “not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates”.
Schofield revealed that he and co-presenter Holly Willoughby are no longer talking and that his wife was “very, very angry” after he confessed to her, having previously denied the relationship.
He also said: “She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, ‘I need to talk to you’. She called back and I told her.”
The BBC is also set to release an interview with Schofield being questioned by Amol Rajan.
In a trailer, the presenter told BBC News how the relationship with his young lover developed.
“It was a totally innocent picture, a totally innocent Twitter follow, of which I follow 11,400 people, and then it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job, about careers,” he said.
“What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with talking to someone no matter what age they are?
“Does that mean that if you’re following anyone on Twitter that you absolutely don’t talk to anybody else or you don’t give advice?”
He added: “The brief communications backwards and forwards up to the point that he came to work on This Morning I think was just chat.”
Schofield clarified why his statement last week said the affair was “unwise”, and called it a “very, very grave error”.
He added: “It was consensual, but it was my fault.”
Schofield told The Sun that he thought it looked “shocking” when he was made aware of online photographs.
He told the paper: “At the time I did not think about it possibly ruining my career. I really probably only thought about it when I saw the rumour mill, and saw it growing.
“Then I saw the link with the drama school photo all those years before, and thought, ‘This looks shocking’.
“But I didn’t lie to protect my career, he didn’t want his name in public. He wanted his own life.
“The lies grew bigger and bigger and bigger and it was affecting both of us deeply.
“It got to the stage where it was out of control and for whatever cost, it had to stop.
“I have massive guilt, and regret. I’ve made a mistake, I’ve had an affair at work.”
He revealed that he hasn’t spoken to his ex-lover since the affair became public but said he had “paid for his lawyers to independently work on his behalf.
“I am deeply sorry and I apologise to him because I should have known better. I should have acted the way I have always acted. I should not have done it.
“I’m sorry. And I will forever be sorry. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified.”
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