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The boss of ITV has addressed the fact that allegedly no one came forward with ‘evidence’ of Phillip Schofield having an affair, even though some have claimed that they ‘knew’ of the relationship.
Last month, Schofield, 61, quit his role on This Morning, before subsequently stepping away from ITV completely.
He later admitted in a statement shared on social media that he lied about having an affair with a younger male runner who worked on the programme, confessing that he concealed the truth to his family, colleagues and former co-host Holly Willoughby, 42, about the romance.
On Wednesday June 14, several ITV representatives attended a Culture, Media and Sport Committee, where they were asked questions about Schofield and the runner in question, referred to as ‘Person X’, as well as the environment at ITV behind the scenes.
Committee Chair Dame Caroline Dinenage turned first to Dame Carolyn, outlining how since the story of Schofield’s affair emerged, there has been a ‘common theme’ among figures in the entertainment world claiming to have known about the affair, including Piers Morgan and James Haskell.
‘Do you class yourself in the category of the vast majority of people who seemed to know what was going on?’ Dame Caroline said to the ITV chief executive, asking whether she was claiming that ‘everyone else knew’, except for her and Willoughby.
Stressing that ITV was taking the issues ‘extremely seriously’, and saying how ‘glad’ they were to be able to talk about the broadcaster’s duty of care and culture, Dame Carolyn explained that she wished to clear up the ‘facts’ following ‘speculation, rumours and misinformation’.
‘The people that have said they knew would only have heard rumours,’ she claimed.
‘If any one of the individuals you referenced had come to us and said there is evidence of a relationship, with evidence, we would’ve been able to launch a formal investigation, because the imbalance of power and dynamics makes it deeply inappropriate.’
Dame Carolyn claimed that for ‘many months until recently’, ITV had gone to Schofield and Person X, as well as other people in production, to ascertain ‘if they knew something was going on’.
Both Schofield and Person X allegedly ‘repeatedly denied’ that anything was going on, while the members of the production team were said to have never provided any evidence either.
Dame Carolyn rebutted that it was ‘the vast majority’ of people at ITV, stating: ‘If they knew, why didn’t they say something to Kevin?’, referencing Kevin Lygo, the managing director of media and entertainment at ITV.
Highlighting the fact that Lygo ‘speaks to talent all the time’, she added with regards to the claim about the ‘vast majority of people’ allegedly knowing about the affair: ‘It doesn’t feel that to me.’
The dame recollected how when Schofield came out as gay in February 2020, there were lots of comments on social media about his sexuality, with some people also sharing ‘malicious’ messages amid the spread of rumours and speculation.
While the senior figures allegedly first started looking into the rumours in December 2019, Dame Carolyn said that they ‘actually started looking at it’ more in February 2020, when the ‘noise ramped up considerably’.
More to follow.
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