Philip Schofield on Castaway: The ITV presenter’s reminiscing about the controversy as he returns with a new show

Philip Schofield is back. In an unfortunate twist that no one saw coming, the cheeky former This Morning presenter is set to return to the screen as part of a Channel 5 special Cast Away.

“Now you know how summer is,” Schofield wrote on Instagram, “10 days now. No food. No water. No crew. The story of my life, on a desert island and beyond. Cast Away starts Monday on @channel5 & My5 at 9 p.m.

So, before we go back, let’s go back to the tapes – literally. Here’s a breakdown of Philip Schofield’s BBC interview from last summer, where he admitted to a relationship with a 20-year-old show runner on This Morning, which he first discovered when the runner was just 15 years old.

Although Schofield had met the young runner at the age of 15 after Schofield visited his school, the This Morning presenter insisted there was no sexual or romantic element to their relationship until the runner was 20.

The pair occasionally chatted on Twitter when the boy was 15-20 years old, but Schofield says it took months for the young man who worked on the show to become sexually active between them. “They’ve been working on the show for months and we’re going to be a couple, we’re a couple,” he said.

At the beginning of the interview with the BBC, Amol Rajan asked Schofield about the last time he and the runner had a conversation with him. Schofield was revealed recently, when he set up a runner up with a lawyer, which (Schofield) has paid. “They need independent support,” Schofield said.

Perhaps the biggest bombshell of the interview came when Schofield admitted that he and the runner’s first intimate experience happened in the This Morning dressing room. “And, one day, in the dressing room, something happened,” he said, “which I will obviously regret forever, for him and for me, mostly him.” He then added: “I kissed someone at work, which caused more.”

Schofield claimed that he and the young runner had only had “five or six” sexual encounters in total and that the two never fell in love or dated. During the BBC interview, he repeatedly referred to the former runner as his “mate” and when Amol Rajan asked Schofield if he loved the young man, he replied: “No, we’re just a couple, we’re a couple.”

Addressing rumors of super-injunctions and non-disclosure agreements, Schofield said there is nothing of the sort in place. “No, I was asked before — did I make him sign an NDA? — no, of course not.

He also dismissed claims that the runner was “paid” by himself or ITV and said he was free to speak if he wanted to, although he predicted he would not. “What he wants is for all of this to go away,” Schofield said, “he wants a quiet life, he doesn’t want this to happen in the first place.”

Corroborating the co-host’s statement in which he said he lied about the relationship, Schofield said that Holly never knew about it, and that if she asked “I would deny it,” adding, “Holly doesn’t know. Nobody knows.”

At one of the tense points in the BBC interview, Schofield addressed the public, saying “Do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am,” and showed how his children had been keeping suicide for the past month to make sure their father was safe.

“The girls saved my life,” he said, “they didn’t leave me for a month, they were by my side for a month because they were afraid to let me out of their sight (…) and they told me, ‘Don’t you dare do this in the hour (our) hands.’”

In the same part of the interview, Schofield compared himself to former Love Island host and ITV icon Caroline Flack, who died by suicide in 2020 after being arrested for assault causing a difficult time for public and press scrutiny. “How much do you want people to take, and are you really just happy when they’re dead? And that’s what Caroline Flack feels… and it doesn’t stop.

After the Schofield sex scandal brought the relationship on the This Morning screen into question, some claimed that the show was a “toxic” place, and even complained about discrimination (this complaint was not acted upon by ITV).

“Some people can be toxic and see toxicity everywhere because of the lens through which they see the world,” Schofield said in a BBC interview, “no toxicity, no bullying, no bullying. this morning.”

In a BBC interview last year, Schofield insisted that he had no problem with Holly Willoughby, but that he had not spoken to her at the time.

“(The last time I spoke to Holly) I Whatsapped her the day I put the statement up and I said to her ‘I know you can’t answer, you’re probably not allowed, but please know that I’m sorry.'” Amol Rajan asked if Holly answered, and Schofield said, “No.”

It is not known if the pair have reunited or been in contact since this time.

Responding to claims from former This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes, alleging that Schofield had used ITV money to buy taxis to and from the flat for the young runner, Schofield said: “He didn’t come to my flat very often, he came to the flat once, to remember him didn’t stay, he said he was passing by and he would go in for a beer (…) Absolutely not. And I don’t have an ITV car account either, the presenter doesn’t know.

Schofield, who had been married to his wife Stephanie Lowe for more than 30 years at the time of the news of their affair, said he found out he was gay during his relationship with the runner.

“My relationship with my friend coincided with that (realization) time,” he said. However, he refused to answer questions about whether he had previous gay experiences, while he was also married, saying “I think this interview is not about other experiences.”