Phillip Schofield is returning to television 16 months after quitting This Morning over what he called an “unwise, but not illegal” affair.
The 62-year-old, who stepped down from presenting the ITV daytime show in May 2023 after 21 years, will appear in a Channel 5 special called Cast Away, which follows a celebrity stranded on an island off the coast of Madagascar for nearly two weeks.
A spokesperson for Channel 5 said Schofield was being left on the island with a handful of cameras, which would allow him to “confront the challenges of total isolation, the forces of nature, and provides the time to battle within his own mind as he explores his own controversial story”.
The three-part series will air from Monday to Wednesday at 9pm on each of those days.
Schofield said: “This is most definitely a first for me and the only thing I felt compelled to do. It appealed to me on so many levels.
“I’ve recently had a lot of time to think about my life, what went right and what went wrong, but I’ve always had the safe arms of friends and family wrapped around me. This time it’s just me, no phone, no comforts, no crew and only lip balm as a luxury.
“I’m looking forward to exploring the island, trying to tie knots to secure my shelter, and foraging and fending for myself in the wild … with no help. Maybe I’ll be Robinson Crusoe, or maybe I’ll just be Tom Hanks’ Wilson and quietly drift off into the wild blue yonder.”
He is said to have turned down “lucrative offers” from ITV and the BBC for the Channel 5 role, according to the Sun, who first published allegations of the affair in 2019.
Over the weekend, Channel 5 posted a short clip of a mystery star, said to be Schofield, walking across a remote beach, as it teased the desert island programme on social media.
“A celebrity marooned on an uninhabited tropical island off the coast of Madagascar for 10 days is challenged with total isolation, the forces of nature, and the battle within their own mind,” the video was captioned.
Schofield’s This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby left the show almost five months after his departure, and after 14 years presenting the daytime show with him. She has continued to front ITV’s Dancing On Ice, with Stephen Mulhern replacing Schofield as co-host.
In June 2023, ITV launched an independent KC-led investigation into the scandal to examine how the company had dealt with rumours relating to the relationship between Schofield and a This Morning runner, complaints by staff and whether ITV’s response was adequate.
Jane Mulcahy KC, who interviewed 48 people for the review, said Schofield had “reluctantly declined” to take part because of health risks, and found the presenter’s “patronage” of a younger male colleague with whom he was having an affair clearly assisted the man’s early career at ITV before he then “made his way on his own”.
Mulcahy found that neither ITV management nor This Morning’s senior staff knew about the affair until Schofield’s statement, and which the younger employee had not reported.
In an interview with the BBC in June 2023, after reports of the affair came to light, which happened while he was married to his wife of 30 years, Stephanie Lowe, Schofield said: “I have brought myself down. I am done. I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart.”
When asked then what he would like to say to the man with whom he had the affair, Schofield said: “I’d say to everyone that I lied to, I am desperately sorry, but principally I’d like to apologise to him. I have caused you so much pain and I’ll never forgive myself.”
