Barrister to carry out review for ITV
ITV has instructed a barrister to carry out an external review of the facts following Phillip Schofield’s departure from This Morning and subsequent press statements, chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall has said in a letter seen by the PA news agency.
The letter was sent to culture secretary Lucy Frazer, DCMS Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage and Ofcom’s chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, in the wake of Schofield’s departure from ITV last week.
Schofield, 61, resigned from the broadcaster on Friday and was dropped by his talent agency YMU after admitting to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague.
The letter mentions the “significant media coverage concerning Phillip Schofield” and adds that: “As you would expect we take the matter extremely seriously and have reviewed our own records over the weekend.”
It says ITV records show “when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in late 2019/early 2020 ITV investigated”.
“Both parties were questioned then and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours, as did Phillip’s then agency YMU. In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on the This Morning and wider Daytime team and were not provided with, and did not find any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.
“Given the ongoing rumours, we continued to ask questions of both parties, who both continued to deny the rumours, including as recently as this month.”
The letter goes on to state out facts, following what Dame Carolyn says has been “a lot of inaccuracy” in reporting and she added the former employee Schofield admitted to an affair with has been offered support throughout.
It said: “The ITV employee was aged 19 when he first did work experience at This Morning in 2015 and 20 years old when he applied and succeeded in securing a job as a runner on the show.”
Schofield had presented This Morning since 2002, with Holly Willoughby joining the programme in 2009. Willoughby is due to return to the show on Monday after the halfterm break, having taken an early holiday after news of Schofield’s departure emerged.