ITV Boss Carolyn McCall Says Phillip Schofield Affair Was “Deeply Inappropriate” But Stresses “No Evidence” Was Ever Provided
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ITV boss Carolyn McCall has said “no evidence” was brought to her and her team during Phillip Schofield’s affair with a much younger runner as she indicated the relationship was “deeply inappropriate.”
Appearing in front of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (CMSC) this morning, McCall said “we had no legal reason to go any further” with informal investigations into the years-long rumors of the affair between the former This Morning host and a runner, who is being referred to as Person X.
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“We had no legal reason to go any further and if we had a reason then we would have done a formal investigation,” she said. “It’s not in our interest in any way not to investigate anything that we know has evidence to support it.”
A number of former presenters such as Piers Morgan and Eamonn Holmes have come out publicly since Schofield resigned in disgrace having admitted to the affair, but McCall questioned why they didn’t bring formal evidence to her team during the period.
“If anyone had come to us and said there is evidence that there is a relationship between Schofield and Person X we would have been able to launch a formal investigation,” she added. “The imbalance of power and imbalance of dynamics make it deeply inappropriate and we have policies that say that very clearly.”
McCall said she is “very concerned” for Schofield’s welfare and Schofield has texted her saying he is “deeply deeply sorry for lying,” coming a fortnight after he resigned in disgrace.
She strongly denied that an investigation hadn’t been launched due to This Morning being one of the network’s commercial successes, adding that if the current KC investigating the matter “says we should do any aspects differently we will listen and act.”
Armed with reams of information, McCall and her colleagues stressed they had informally asked Schofield, Person X and others countless times about the relationship, especially after Schofield came out as homosexual in February 2020.
When Schofield said he was going to come out on This Morning three years ago, programs boss Kevin Lygo told today’s committee “there was a moment when we were alone and I said ‘Is there anything you want to tell me?’.”
“He categorically said this is a private matter that I want to get out there and that was it,” added Lygo. “Even four days before the relationship came out, he looked me in the eye and said there was nothing more.”
Meanwhile, ITV General Counsel Kyla Mullins said Person X was asked 12 times informally whether the rumors about his relationship with Schofield were true.
“We feel from a process perspective and a human perspective we had asked multiple times of both individuals both formally and informally and we felt that was proportionate,” added McCall. “All we had was hearsay, rumor and speculation.”
McCall stressed how concerned her team had been over Schofield and Person X’s state of mind after Schofield came out.
“Phillip was not in a good state he was very anxious, very worried and very nervous,’ she said. “And Person X could not really grasp the media intrusion that was so prevalent in his life and so we had to balance how we asked questions [about the relationship].”
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