ITV boss hits back at accusation 'vast majority knew' about Phillip Schofield affair

14 June 2023, 15:12

ITV head refutes idea that everyone 'knew' about Phillip Schofield's affair

By Alice Dear

ITV have described Phillip Schofield's affair with a younger member of the This Morning team as 'deeply inappropriate'.

One of the bosses at ITV has hit back at accusations that a 'vast majority knew' about Phillip Schofield's affair with a younger runner on This Morning.

Last month, Holly Willoughby's former co-star stepped down from hosting duties, only a week before he went public with details of his affair.

Phillip, 61, has repeatedly claimed that his This Morning co-star Holly Willoughby, 42, and the ITV team did not know about the affair and that he had lied to them when questioned about it.

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Today, on Wednesday 14th June, ITV representatives attended a Culture, Media and Sport Committee to answer questions surrounding the scandal and recent claims to 'toxicity' behind-the-scenes at the network giant.

Phillip Schofield has claimed Holly Willoughby and the rest of the This Morning team did not know about his affair with the younger runner. Picture: BBC

During this meeting, Chief Executive of ITV Dame Carolyn McCall hit back at recent claims from celebrities such as Piers Morgan, Eamonn Holmes and James Haskell that a vast majority of people knew about Phillip's affair.

Committee Chair Dame Caroline Dinenage asked Dame Carolyn is she classed herself in the category of the people who knew what was going on with the This Morning presenter and the runner – who is being called Person X.

McCall told the Committee: "The people that have said they knew would only have heard rumours."

Piers Morgan recently claimed that 'everyone at ITV' knew about Phillip Schofield's affair with a younger runner. Picture: Alamy

She continued: "If any one of the individuals you referenced had come to us and said there is evidence of a relationship, with evidence, we would’ve been able to launch a formal investigation, because the imbalance of power and dynamics makes it deeply inappropriate."

McCall claims that for "many months until recently" ITV had approached Phillip, Person X and other people in production to ask them what they knew.

According to the ITV boss, both Phillip and Person X "repeatedly denied" that there was something going on between them.

She added that no one from the production team could provide any evidence of an affair either.

Dame Carolyn McCall said that the people claiming they knew about Phillip Schofield's affair 'would only have heard rumours'. Picture: Getty

Speaking about the claims of a "vast majority" of people knowing, Dame Carolyn said: "If they knew, why didn’t they say something to Kevin?" (Kevin Lygo is the Managing Director of Media and Entertainment at ITV).

The committee heard that ITV was taking the issues "extremely seriously" and that they wanted to clear up "facts" following weeks of "speculation, rumours and misinformation".