Phillip Schofield has mocked Holly Willoughby’s “are you OK?” moment in his TV comeback, and accused former colleagues of throwing him under the bus.
After more than a year out of the public eye, Schofield is set to appear in Cast Away, a Channel 5 show in which he spends 10 days alone on an island off Madagascar.
Schofield lost his job on ITV’s This Morning over an affair with a male co-worker more than 30 years his junior.
He uses his appearance on Cast Away to settle some scores.
Filmed enjoying a family barbecue with his wife, Steph – with whom he has remained on good terms despite the affair – and their two daughters, Molly and Ruby, Schofield tells them: “If you’re ok, then we’re ok, and I’m ok. Are you ok?” then laughs.
It appears to be a mocking reference to Willoughby, who opened her first This Morning show post-Schofield’s departure with the words: “Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you ok?”
She went on to tell viewers that she had given “love and support to someone who was not telling the truth”. The pair had been on-screen partners and supposedly close friends for 14 years.
Schofield did not mention Willoughby’s name during the Cast Away show.
‘Angry, bitter stage’
He said of his old career: “I miss parts of it. I miss most of it if I’m honest. But there are bits that I really, really don’t miss. You learn a lot about people. I don’t miss that.”
And he said: “When you throw someone under a bus, you’ve got to have a really bloody good reason to do it.”
Tasting a coconut on his desert island, Schofield said that he was “going through an angry, bitter stage… like some television presenters”.
Schofield was forced to quit This Morning in May last year after admitting to a relationship with a runner on the programme. They first met when the boy was 15, although Schofield maintained that their relationship did not become sexual until the runner was 20.
Schofield described the affair, which he repeatedly denied to his ITV bosses and his management, as “an unwise and unprofessional thing to do”.
“I’ll be forever sorry. I screwed up, I made a mistake and I hurt the people around me,” he said.
However, referring to the age gap, he added: “I think another TV presenter or two might have done exactly the same thing.”
Schofield, 62, said his life had “totally unravelled” and his 41-year television career was ruined. “One minute you’re there and then the next minute you’re gone. You know what it feels like to be cancelled.”
‘Step back from the edge’
Describing his lowest moment, he said: “In the last 18 months, it got as dark as it is possible to get. A year ago, I got so close,” he said.
“I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready and it was Molly and Ruby both looking after me at the time, and Molly said, ‘Do you imagine what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?
“And that was just enough to take a step back from the edge.”
Schofield also spoke about coming out as gay, an announcement he made four years ago in an emotional interview with Willoughby on the This Morning sofa.
“I’m very proud of what I did, and I know that coming out for many people is liberating. The saying ‘just live your best life’. But for me, doing it later in life, at the moment it’s just given me more anguish than joy because I’m fully aware of the damage that it leaves.”
Schofield suggested his appearance on Cast Away would divide viewers. “I think there’d be an awful lot of people [who] hope that I never come back,” he said.
His daughter, Molly, told the programme that the scandal had brought the family closer. His wife, Steph, described Schofield’s critics as “[a] very few horrid people”.
Schofield described ITV presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly as his “best mates” but said he had no interest in appearing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! “There are some channels you just won’t work for,” he said.
He is alone on the island, filming himself, with basic survival tools including a tarpaulin to build a shelter, a fishing rod and a machete.
Previous celebrities to have undertaken the challenge include Dame Joanna Lumley, who has sent Schofield a video message of support.
Cast Away begins on Monday at 9pm on Channel 5
