Phillip Schofield has said he has "lost everything" after admitting to having lied about an affair with a younger male colleague during his time on This Morning.
The former presenter, 61, said in an emotional interview with the BBC that he "wouldn't be here" if his daughters had not been by his side last week following the fallout from his affair admission. Last week saw Phillip resign from ITV and dropped by his talent agency after admitting that he had "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" about the relationship.
Speaking to the BBC's Amol Rajan in an interview released on Friday morning, Phillip admitted: "I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart. I have lost everything. If I get through this I don't know how I move forward. What am I going to do with my days?"
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He went on: "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... consistently lied about. You can't live with that. How do you live with that?"
In his first interviews given to the BBC and The Sun since his departure from This Morning, Phillip said he was "utterly broken and ashamed" over the secret relationship but denied claims that he had "groomed" his younger colleague, having previously described the affair as "unwise, but not illegal". Phillip admitted helping his former lover to secure a job at This Morning, but said that a romantic relationship did not occur until the man was 20 years old.
Speaking of the backlash he had received after admitting to the affair, Phillip told the BBC: "Do you want me to die? Because that's where I am. It is relentless, and it is day after day, after day after day."
In his interview with The Sun, the former presenter also addressed his rumoured fall-out with co-star Holly Willoughby, denying that there had ever been a "feud" between the pair as reports had suggested prior to his exit from This Morning. After Phillip came clean about the affair, Holly posted a statement on Instagram expressing her "hurt" that he had not been truthful.
"It's taken time to process yesterday's news," Holly said. "When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not. It's been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie."
Phillip told The Sun: "I've lost my best friend. I let her down. Holly did not know. And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, 'I am so, so sorry that I lied to you'."
He went on to say that his "greatest apology" over the fallout from the affair was to his former lover. "I'm sorry. And I will forever be sorry. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified," Phillip said.
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