Featured Image Credit: PA Images / Alamy / ITV
Topics: Phillip Schofield, This Morning, ITV
Anish Vij
Phillip Schofield has hit back at critics with a new statement on Instagram after quitting This Morning.
The former TV presenter, 61, resigned from ITV on Friday and was dropped by his talent agency after admitting to an 'unwise, but not illegal' affair with a young male colleague on This Morning.
"I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning," his statement, in part, read.
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"Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship.
"That relationship was unwise, but not illegal.
"It is now over."
Phillip added: "When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing.
"Nobody 'forced' me out.
"Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me.
"In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.
"But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.
"I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family.
"I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife."
Today (29 May) Phillip has taken to social media to address the critics.
He said: "Now I no longer work on @thismorning I am free to say this.
"I hope you have noticed that it's the same handful of people with a grudge against me or the show who seem to have the loudest voice.
"This morning IS the best show to work on, with the best people. In all the years I worked there, there was no toxicity.
"You can listen to those persistently loud voices if you like.
"But the thousands of guests over the years, thousands of staff and crew, hundreds of presenters and contributors all know, it IS a family of wonderful, talented, kind, hard-working people."