Disgraced Phillip Schofield looked his boss “in the eye” and lied to him about his secret affair with a young colleague, MPs were told yesterday.
ITV managing director Kevin Lygo told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, how he was talking with the former This Morning presenter about a separate incident days before he quit ITV.
He said: “Even four days before the relationship came out, he looked me in the eye and said there was nothing more.”
In an explosive hearing in Westminster, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall faced a grilling from MPs alongside Mr Lygo about Schofield’s controversial exit.
They insisted they did not “turn a blind eye” to rumours about ex-presenter’s relationship with a younger colleague.
The bosses said both Schofield and his younger lover – known as Person X – “repeatedly denied” allegations of a relationship right up until Schofield departed ITV. They said Person X was quizzed a dozen times on the matter, each time denying it.
Dame Carolyn said the relationship was “deeply inappropriate” because of the “imbalance of power”. She said ITV would have taken action, but no evidence of the relationship appeared during on-going reviews over several years.
She insisted: “There was only hearsay and rumour and speculation…Nobody on the board would have turned a blind eye to something as serious as this.” But, perhaps significantly, she stopped short of saying there had ever been a formal investigation into the matter.
Dame Carolyn and Mr Lygo also strongly denied allegations that Schofield’s affair was an open secret at ITV – as people including Piers Morgan have suggested.
Dame Carolyn said if they had known that at the time, they would have “acted swiftly” and removed Schofield from their programmes.
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Schofield, 61, released a statement on May 26 quitting ITV completely. Days before he had left This Morning as rumours circulated about his strained relationship with co-host Holly Willoughby.
In it he said he had a relationship with a young man who worked on This Morning, which was “unwise, but not illegal”. He went on to apologise for lying about it.
Dame Carolyn also said the broadcaster does not recognise allegations of a toxic culture at This Morning. Since Schofield’s resignation, the show has been plagued with allegations of “toxicity”.
Dame Carolyn confirmed the daytime programme has had two complaints about bullying or harassment in five years which were “both taken very seriously”, including from the show’s former resident doctor, Dr Ranj Singh, who raised concerns about “bullying and discrimination”.
Talking about the fresh allegations, some of which were read out by SNP MP John Nicolson, she said: “It deeply disappoints me, we do not recognise that at This Morning.”
Before the session ended, she said ITV is currently paying for Schofield to have counselling, at his request. An independent investigation commissioned by ITV will report in September. Dame Carolyn said: “There will be things to learn.”
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