How to watch Phillip Schofield: The Interview
The former presenter has given his first interviews since admitting to an affair with a younger colleague during his time presenting This Morning.
Philip Schofield has said that he has “lost everything” and that his “career is over” in an emotional interview with BBC News.
Just under a week after stepping down from his presenting role on This Morning, Phillip issued a statement last Friday confirming that he’d had an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger colleague during his time hosting the show, and would be resigning from ITV with immediate effect.
Now the former Dancing on Ice host has opened up about the affair scandal in a new interview with BBC News journalist Amol Rajan.
It comes after his first interview, published by The Sun, in which he apologised for his actions. "I’m sorry," he said. "And I will forever be sorry. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified."
Read on for everything you need to know about how to watch Phillip Schofield: The Interview.
How to watch Phillip Schofield: The Interview
The full interview is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
A clip was played on BBC News at 10pm on Thursday, before the full interview was released on BBC iPlayer at 6am on Friday 2nd June.
What does Phillip Schofield say in the BBC interview?
The former Dancing On Ice host answers a series of questions from Amol Rajan about the relationship with the younger runner, who has not been named.
Speaking about the runner, Schofield said: "We’ve stayed mates. We’re still mates. We still stay friendly."
When Rajan asked him the last time he was in contact with the young man, Schofield replied that it was when he hired a lawyer for him “a couple of weeks” ago.
"He needed independent support," Schofield said. "So that was the last time."
Rajan asked, "So that was a few weeks ago?" to which Schofield replied, "Yeah, a couple of weeks."
Schofield also described the former colleague as an "innocent person" who "didn’t do anything wrong, who is vulnerable and probably feels how I do."
The host also refuted accusations of grooming in the interview.
Amol asked Schofield: "You met someone who was a child, you were in a position of power over them, you used your power eventually to give them something they craved, which was a shot at a job in the media, and you nurtured that relationship and that relationship became sexual. They might ask, what's the difference between that and grooming?"
Schofield replied: "Well, the initial list of things was not right anyway. Because it was a totally innocent picture, a totally innocent Twitter follow, of which I follow 11,400 people, and it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job, about careers."
He continued: "What's wrong with that? What's wrong with talking to someone no matter you know, whatever age they are? Does that mean if you are following someone on Twitter that you absolutely don't talk to anybody else or you don't give advice?
"So I disagree with the summation that you just gave because that does paint a very grim picture."
Schofield was then asked, "In that case, why did you say it was unwise?" to which he replied, "The brief communications backwards and forwards up to the point where he came to work on This Morning, I think was just... chat. Um, what was unwise, was the fact that it happened. And that was a very, very grave error.
"Now, it was consensual, but it was my fault."
Phillip Schofield: The Interview is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Authors
Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
