By Emily Caulkett-
Holly Willoughby has said she was left “shaken, troubled, and let down” by Phillip Schofield’s affair, as she returned to presenting This Morning in the wake of the scandal.
The presenter, 42, criticised her former co-host for “not telling the truth” regarding his relationship with a younger colleague, a scandal which led to his resignation on May 26.
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Willoughby said that both she and the audience had been “let down” by Schofield after offering him their “love and support”.
She said that the This Morning team ‘gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth’. She referenced his young lover, who has left ITV and was last seen working in a pub, saying she was ‘worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on
“I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on, and full of questions,” she said.
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You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved.
‘That is a lot to process. And it’s equally hard to see the toll that it’s taken on their own mental health. I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal for the health and wellbeing of everyone’.
‘I hope that as we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other. And from my heart, can I just say thank you for all of your kind messages and thank you for being here this morning,’ she said.
‘Myself, Josie, Dermot (O’Leary), Alison (Hammond), Craig (Doyle), and every single person that works on this show will continue to work hard every single day to bring you that, this show that we love,’ she added.
Disgraced Schofield gave an interview to the BBC last week, where he described the impact of the media onslaught since he admitted to having a relationship with a This Morning employee while he was still married.
He confirmed reports that he first met the boy when he was 15 during a school visit, but vehemently denied that anything sexual took place until the unnamed person was working on the show, when he was “20 or 21”.
Phillip told BBC’s Amol Rajan he “didn’t tell anybody” about his affair with his former This Morning colleague, confirming Holly “did not know” in the tell-all interview
He said: “I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart. I have lost everything. What am I going to do with my days? I see nothing ahead of me but blackness, and sadness, and regret, and remorse, and guilt. I did something very wrong, and then I lied about it consistently.”
In his separate interview with the Sun, the 61-year-old presenter apologised to Willoughby for lying to her about his relationship, saying: ‘I’ve lost my best friend.’
He added: ‘I let her (Holly) down. I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.
‘Holly did not know (about the affair) and she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say: ‘I am so, so sorry that I lied to you’.
‘She didn’t reply and I understand why she didn’t reply as well. So, yeah, if anyone is in any way linking Holly to this, that is -absolutely, wholly untrue.’
ITV has been under siege since the Schofield revelation, with allegations of toxicity and a cover up, particularly from former This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes.
The show’s former resident doctor, Dr Ranj Singh, also claimed to have raised concerns about ‘bullying and discrimination’ two years ago when he worked there and afterwards felt like he was ‘managed out’ for whistleblowing.
Caroline Flack’s mother also attacked ITV for the entire affair surrounding Schofield, accusing the broadcaster of having learnt nothing from her daughter’s suicide.
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