Phillip Schofield stuns by making ‘greatest apology’ to lover NOT his wife as he hints he wants to repair marital relationship with Stephanie admitting ‘I have a good marriage but it’s not great right now’
- READ MORE: ‘I’ve lost everything’: Phillip Schofield tells BBC his ‘career is over’ in wake of affair scandal
Phillip Schofield failed to apologise to his wife Stephanie Lowe for his affair with a This Morning colleague in a bombshell BBC interview.
After publicly admitting to having an affair in an explosive statement, the presenter, 61, broke his silence to insist his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout was to his former lover, adding he was ‘sorry to everyone he lied to.’
In the interview, which was released on Friday morning, Phillip admitted his relationship with Stephanie ‘isn’t brilliant right now,’ but they have ‘a wonderful marriage.’
The former ITV star defiantly flashed his wedding ring while hinting they could prepare their relationship in the future, after The Daily Mail revealed Stephanie has been left both furious and devastated by his admission that he had an affair.
Phillip told BBC’s Amol Rajan: ‘I had a wonderful marriage, have a wonderful marriage [waves his wedding ring], although it’s not brilliant right now, with a incredibly supportive wife and two wonderful children.
Speaking out: Phillip Schofield failed to apologise to his wife Stephanie Lowe for his affair with a This Morning colleague in a bombshell BBC interview
Shocking: After publicly admitting to having an affair, the presenter, 61, broke his silence to insist his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout was to his former lover
Host Amol noted that they are currently ‘separated,’ with Phillip adding: ‘We are separated but we are very much together.’
Asked what he’d like to say to Stephanie, Phillip said: ‘Oh my god, can you imagine how difficult that conversation was?’ before pausing and stating: ‘Let’s just say it was an incredibly difficult conversation.
‘The most difficult conversation I’ve ever had to have with her, and she is extremely disappointed because I lied to her as well. But, she wished me well today, and so we’ll see.’
Earlier in the interview, Phillip said he ‘desperately sorry’ to his family, friends and colleagues, as well as anyone he’d lied to.
He said: ‘I would say to everyone, I would say to my family, my friends, my work colleagues, the public, to ITV, to my management, to everyone that I lied to I am desperately desperately sorry.
‘But principally I would like to apologise to him because it may habe been consensual but I shouldn’t have allowed it to happen and that was a grave grave error on my part.
‘Because of that an absolutely innocent person is being persecuted.’
Asked what he’d say to his two daughters, Phillip said: ‘My daughters were, I called them and said ”I have something to tell you” and they came out to see me, and they were unbelievable.
Interview: The former ITV star defiantly flashed his wedding ring during the interview, after The Daily Mail revealed Stephanie has been left both furious and devastated by his admission
Upsetting: Phillip said: ‘She is extremely disappointed because I lied to her as well,’ while hinting he still wants to repair their marital relationship
‘I looked at them and thought ”well you got that right, and they don’t think you’re a bully, and they don’t think you’re toxic, and they know you screwed up, royally.’
Phillip told Amol his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout from the affair was to his former lover.
He said: ‘It has brought the greatest misery into his totally innocent life, his totally innocent family, his totally innocent friends. It has brought the greatest grief to them.’
He added: ‘I am deeply sorry and I apologise to him because I should have known better. I should have acted the way I have always acted. I should not have done it. I’m sorry. And I will forever be sorry. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified.’
Despite this Phillip praised his two daughters for saving his life over the past week after his exit from This Morning, saying he ‘wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for’ them.
Schofield told how his two daughters Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27, had ‘guarded me and won’t let me out of their sight’, adding that he had felt a ‘weird numbness’.
The broadcaster also said he had ‘lost everything’ in the wake of the revelations, admitting his ‘career is over’ and there had been a ‘catastrophic effect’ on his mind.
Schofield went on: ‘I did something very wrong and then I lied about it consistently and you can’t live with that. How do you live with that?’
He also said ‘I think I understand how Caroline Flack felt’, in the interview – Phillip’s first following his exit from This Morning last week.
Describing himself as a ‘broken’ man, Schofield denied accusations that he groomed the young man who landed a job at This Morning after meeting the former host.
Schofield met the young man when he was just 15 and still at drama school. He then asked the ex-host for a job, which led to a position as an ITV production assistant when he turned 18. Sometime after that, the affair began.
After the young man reportedly declared his love for Schofield at an awards ceremony in January 2020, he was then moved to Loose Women, another of the network’s programmes, before eventually leaving the broadcaster.
Phillip insisted that he did not ‘lie to protect’ his career but his colleague had not wanted ‘his name in public’.
The affair, he said, began in 2017 after a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room.
He shut down claims that the pair were in a full-blown relationship, claiming it was ‘not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates’.
In an interview with The Sun, Phillip admitted his wife was ‘very, very angry’ when he confessed to her about his affair after he had lied and insisted his younger lover was just a friend and colleague.
Talking about how his wife learned about the affair, Schofield said: ‘She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, ”I need to talk to you”.
‘She called back and I told her. She was very, very angry.’
Schofield’s loyal wife has been left both furious and devastated by his admission that he had an affair with a much younger colleague during their marriage.
Friends say that Lowe, the mother of the presenter’s two grown-up daughters, had no idea he was in a relationship because Schofield had always described the man as a friend and colleague.
Recalling the moment he confessed to the affair, having previously denied it when she had asked him, the former host said: ‘She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, ‘I need to talk to you’. She called back and I told her.’
‘She was very, very angry.’
Breaking his silence: Describing himself as a ‘broken’ man, Schofield denied accusations that he groomed the young man who landed a job at This Morning after meeting the former host
The presenter added that he’s no longer on social media after being relentlessly trolled in the wake of the affair scandal.
He told the publication: ‘AI won’t kill off the human race — it is social media.
‘Because — what is the saying? — a lie goes all the way around the world before the truth has even put its boots on. It’s invention and it grows and grows and it is like cancer. Social media is cancer.’
Phillop also lifted the lid on how Holly Willoughby distanced herself from him when his paedophile brother was jailed and confirmed they are no longer speaking after he left ITV.
He told the BBC: ‘I WhatsApped her on the day I put out the statement. I said that you don’t have to reply, you probably can’t, but I want to say I’m desperately, desperately sorry’, adding Holly, who is currently on holiday in Portugal, hasn’t replied.
Denying their relationship is ‘broken’, he went on: ‘I adore Holly. I’ve always adored her. She’s my TV sister. I don’t have a problem with her at all.
‘I would say to everyone, my family, friends, my work colleagues, to ITV, the public, my management company, the people I lied to: I am desperately sorry. But principally I would like to apologise to him.
READ MORE: Phillip Schofield says his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout of his affair was to his former lover
‘It may have been consensual, fully legal, but I shouldn’t have allowed it to happen and that is a grave error on my part and I know that because if that an absolutely innocent person is being persecuted’.
Since Schofield’s resignation, This Morning has been plagued by allegations of ‘toxicity’ – which has also impacted Willoughby’s standing.
Producers have also faced guests turning down offers to appear on This Morning – and its biggest sponsor, car dealer Arnold Clark, has confirmed it will not be renewing an existing multi-million-pound deal with the channel in autumn.
Yet Holly Willoughby is determined to fight to keep her spot on This Morning’s sofa and hopes to ‘ride out’ the ongoing scandal surrounding Schofield that has plunged ITV into a crisis, a source has claimed.
It comes amid fears that the programme will lose more of its advertisers as one insider said ‘brands do not feel ITV is a safe bet at the moment’.
However, a friend of Willoughby said the star ‘has nothing to hide’ from an ITV probe.
The star was in Portugal when she found out top silk Jane Mulcahy KC would be carrying out ‘an external review to establish the facts’.
A source told The Mirror: ‘Holly will of course 100% cooperate with the inquiry should she be asked, as she has nothing to hide whatsoever.
‘She has made crystal clear that Phil lied to her about his relationship with the runner, and is super relaxed about giving her version of events.’
Schofield claimed his relationship with his former best friend broke down after his brother was jailed, which made her distance herself from the friendship.
The veteran ITV presenter had stepped down from his role on This Morning just days after his paedophile brother Timothy Schofield was jailed for 12 years for a slew of child sex offences including abusing a teenage boy he groomed.
Last Friday, Schofield admitted that he had lied to ITV, his co-host, his agency YMU and lawyers about his relationship with a much younger colleague.
The revelation sent ITV into meltdown, being forced to launch an external investigation into the affair, after a number of former workers claimed the station’s bosses must have known about their romance.
Source: Read Full Article
