Phillip Schofield says he was ‘fired’ from ITV for ‘someone else’s crime’

Phillip Schofield says he was “fired” from ITV for “someone else’s crime”.

The former daytime host, 62, is making a dramatic TV comeback fronting his Channel 5 ‘Cast Away’ show after he stepped down from presenting ITV’s ‘This Morning’ in May 2023 in the wake of huge publicity over an affair he had with a junior colleague.

He has now claimed he didn’t resign from the show, and says he was sacked over a separate wave of negative publicity over the conviction of his paedophile brother Timothy, 54, who was sentenced to 12 months in jail in April 2023 of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019 – including two of sexual activity with a child.

Phillip said on the final episode of his desert island series about how he flew into a rage when his agent called him to say he was being let go from ITV: “My phone rang and I picked it up: ‘Mate are you somewhere quiet?’ – which is never a good sign.”

He added his agent told him: “Erm, I’ve got a bit of a shock. I’m afraid you’ve been let go from ‘This Morning’.

“That’s it, it’s done. You’re not going back on Monday.”

Phillip said he asked: “What? Because of what?”, as his agent replied: “I think it's the publicity mate.”

The TV host went on: “(I told my agent) that’s got nothing to do with me… that has nothing to do with me. Why would I be sacked for something that somebody else did?”

He said: “I’ve just been fired. Because of him. Because I was becoming more of a story than the programme. It was better for the show, better for the channel.

“And I agreed to say that I’d resigned because it would be neater for everybody.

“I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother. I was fired for the bad publicity. For someone else’s crime.

“And the thing is, about a week later, I blew my own wheels off with everything else, because I thought the only way to even begin to put this right for everybody is to do a full mea culpa.

“I came clean about my affair. What people don’t realise is, I wasn’t fired from ‘This Morning’ when I admitted lying. It was before. Because of someone I used to call brother.

“But that is my last story, looking back.”

An ITV source has denied Phillip’s claims he was fired over his brothers crimes, with a source telling the Daily Mirror: “Phillip’s new comments are simply untrue… we stood by him through his brother's court case and he then stepped away when things became too much.

“There was a lot going on and some relationships on the programme had become untenable as was reported at the time.

“He then admitted himself he had been lying about an affair and he resigned from ITV altogether.

“We didn’t sack him, he lied to us and then he resigned, there is not much else to say and we as a network just want to move on.”