After 19 days, ITV bosses have finally spoken directly about Phillip Schofield’s scandal

On the 26th May 2023, Phillip Schofield stepped down from This Morning. Now, 19 days later, ITV have released a statement claiming Schofield’s relationship was “deeply inappropriate.”

ITV boss Dame Caroline McCall is currently appearing before a committee of MPs after Phillip Schofield’s exit from This Morning. She says his relationship with the younger staff member was “deeply inappropriate” because of the “imbalance of power.”

McCall claimed ITV would have taken action but had no evidence of the relationship and both men “repeatedly” denied it.

She is facing questions on ITV’s approach to safeguarding and complaint handling from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

ITV bosses also spoke about Eamon Holmes’ tweets. Holmes tweeted: “Four high members of ITV management knew what sort of man he [Schofield] was and NEVER once took action to prevent him controlling or taking advantage of his position over young people.”

Kevin Lygo and McCall pushed back on this. McCall said: “It’s actually defamatory, never time anything else.”

Lygo suggested such allegations often come from disgruntled former presenters who were upset about losing their ITV jobs. Lygo said: “A lot of these people worked as presenters on ITV for a very long time, and there was never any complaint from them whilst they were there. If anything they wanted ‘more work please, we love it here, can we do more.’ It’s not surprising that when they go, they’re suddenly like ‘Oh I hate ITV, it’s awful’, when for a decade or more, they were there reaping the rewards and enjoying the job.”

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