Phillip Schofield has issued a blunt statement in response to critics after he quit This Morning.
Last week, Schofield confessed that he’d had an “unwise” but not “illegal” affair with a much younger colleague on the programme.
The news came shortly after he resigned from the talk show amid rumours of a feud with his co-host Holly Willoughby. He has now resigned from ITV altogether.
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The 61-year-old has since hit back at critics in a post shared on Instagram.
He wrote: “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.”
Monday’s episode (29 May) of This Morning will be presented by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary while Willoughby is absent from the programme, having taken an early half-term break on 22 May.
Willoughby is due back on the ITV show on 5 June.
Schofield announced that he would be exiting This Morning on 20 May, after two decades on the show. Hammond and O’Leary paid tribute to the former presenter, calling him “one of the best live television broadcasters this country has ever had”.
Six days later, Schofield admitted to having an affair with a much younger colleague.
The employee in question was allegedly 15 when he first met Schofield during a school visit, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Lawyers representing Schofield confirmed to the Evening Standard that he met the boy when he was 15, but said the affair began after he started working at ITV, and after he turned 18.
The 61-year-old said that he lied to his employers, Willoughby, his agent and his family about the nature of his relationship with his colleague.
On Satuday (27 May), Willoughby said that it has been “very hurtful” to find out that her co-star had lied about the affair. An ITV spokesperson said the channel had been “badly let down” by Schofield.
In the wake of the news, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries told the BBC on Sunday (28 May) that questions still remained over what safeguarding had been in place at the time of the affair and how Schofield’s colleague came to be employed on the daytime TV show.
