Phillip Schofield has opened up about the final ever text message he sent to former best friend Holly Willoughby - and the heartbreaking response he received.
The pair's friendship has been left completely shattered after he admitted to having an "unwise but not illegal" affair with a younger male ITV colleague while working on This Morning.
Holly later released a statement saying that she felt "hurt" that she had been lied to. ITV bosses also said that they felt they had been "badly let down" by the presenter.
Phil had previously announced that he had stepped from This Morning after rumours of a feud between them dominated headlines, but following his statement announced that he was leaving ITV with immediate effect.
He has also been dropped by his talent agency YMU, which his daughter Molly works for and he has been with for 35 years.
Speaking in two new emotional interviews, Phillip said that he texted Holly at the time that the scandal broke out... but he has received no reply.
“The last time we had a conversation was when I texted Holly and said, ‘Don’t reply’ – this was after the statement last week – ‘Don’t reply, you’re probably not allowed to, but I am deeply deeply sorry that I lied to you,'" he told The Sun.
He added: "And I am. It was the one secret in our sanctuary that was never mentioned.”
The presenter also spoke about he felt as though he had "lost everything" to the BBC's Amol Rajan, explaining that his daughters "saved [his] life".
"They said last week, they hadn’t left me for a moment. They’ve been by my side every moment because they’re scared to let me out of their sight. What is that like, for daughters to have to go through something like that?
“They said to me, ‘Don’t you dare do this on our watch. We’re supposed to be looking after you.’ And if my girls hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here, because I don’t see a future. And so how much do you want a man to take, and are you truly only happy when he’s dead?”
He also addressed rumours about his affair, denying that he groomed his younger This Morning colleague and claimed that he didn't "lie to protect [his] career", but to protect the man he was with.
Phillip said: "I did not, I did not (groom him). There are accusations of all sorts of things. It never came across that way (an abuse of power) because we’d become mates. I don’t know about that.
“But of course I understand that there will be a massive judgment, but bearing in mind, I have never exercised that anywhere else. I assume somebody, somewhere, assumed something was going on, correctly, and didn’t say anything."
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