Entertainment
Phillip Schofield ‘wouldn’t be here’ without his daughters amid affair confession fallout: ‘I am utterly broken’-Emily Bashforth-Entertainment – Metro
His daughters pulled him back from suicidal thoughts.
Phillip Schofield says his daughters saved him from suicidal thoughts (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Phillip Schofield has said he wouldn’t be here it it weren’t for his two daughters amid the fallout of his affair admission.
The former This Morning presenter, 61, resigned from ITV recently after admitting to an affair with a much younger male showrunner after years of speculation.
He apologised to his colleagues and bosses for lying about the affair, and was subsequently dropped from his talent agency of 35 years.
Schofield also apologised to his famiy, including wife Stephanie Lowe and their daughters Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27.
Molly works for YMU, the talent agency that managed her dad and continues to manage a wealth of ITV personalities.
Now, Schofield has given his first tell-all interview with The Sun, explaining how low he feels mentally after making headlines for the past week as former work colleagues have also chimed in to share their thoughts on the situation.
He and Stephanie Lowe share Molly and Ruby (Picture: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)
Schofield resigned from ITV after confessing to lying about his affair (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
When asked by the publication how he is at the moment, wryly, he replied: ‘I am in a very bad way.
‘Mentally, utterly, utterly broken.’
He stated: ‘And if it hadn’t been for my girls last week I wouldn’t be here.
‘I know I deserve it but they said, “Don’t you dare, we’re here to look after you”. I feel embarrassed and ashamed.
‘I have just felt like I was going lower and lower and lower and lower. And then, this bizarre, numbness washes over you, like a selfishness.’
Reflecting on the last few years, he said things have been far from easy, which has led to suicidal thoughts.
Molly and Ruby were there to pull him out of them.
‘With this ultimate final cataclysm, I looked ahead at nothing and the girls said, “Don’t, we are here to look after you. Don’t you dare do it on our watch”.’
He says his daughters have been ‘guarding’ him (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
He doesn’t believe he has a future in TV (Picture: PA)
‘And that took me one step back and they won’t leave me alone.
‘They were guarding me.’
Meanwhile, he has also detailed the moment he told his wife of 30 years about his affair.
He explained that Stephanie was clueless about what went on, so she was ‘very, very angry’ when she found out.
‘She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, “I need to talk to you”,’ he recalled. ‘She called back and I told her. She was very, very angry.’
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He added: ‘She is very, very angry but we spoke today. And my daughters were unbelievable.
‘They are without question, our greatest asset. I always say our, but from a father’s point of view, my greatest asset are my girls.’
Youngest Ruby joined him for the interview, The Sun states.
Phillip Schofield statement in full
‘I am making this statement via the Daily Mail to whom I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story which they wanted to write about me a few days ago.
‘The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.
‘Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.
‘When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody “forced” me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me. In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.
‘But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.
‘I am painfully conscious that I have 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. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.
‘I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me.
‘I will reflect on my very bad judgment in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it. To protect his privacy, I am not naming this individual and my deepest wish is that both he and his family can now move on with their lives free from further intrusion, and that this statement will enable them to do so.
‘I ask the media now to respect their privacy. They have done nothing wrong, and I ask that their privacy should be respected.’
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