UK Presenter Phillip Schofield Dropped By Long-Term Agency YMU After ‘This Morning’ Exit; Presenter Admits “Unwise” Affair With Younger Colleague In Lengthy Mea Culpa

Andreas Wiseman
·4 min read
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Under fire UK presenter Phillip Schofield has been ditched by his agency of 35 years, YMU, on the same day he has admitted to having an extra-marital affair with a younger ITV employee.

The UK TV evergreen issued a lengthy apology — which you can read below — via UK publication The Daily Mail. In the apology, he said he wouldn’t be working with broadcaster ITV in the near future or hosting an upcoming awards ceremony.

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Mary Bekhait, the Group CEO of YMU Group, said today: “Honesty and integrity are core values for YMU’s whole business, defining everything we do. Talent management is a relationship based entirely on trust.

She continued: “This week, we have learned important new information about our client Phillip Schofield. These facts contradicted what Phillip had previously told YMU, as well as
the external advisors we had brought in to support him. As a result, on Thursday we agreed to part company with Phillip, with immediate effect.”

Via his lawyers, Schofield issued the following statement in response: “It is with the most profound regret that after 35 years of being faultlessly managed by YMU I have agreed to step down from their representation with immediate effect.”

The agency drop follows Schofield’s bombshell exit last week from popular ITV show This Morning, which he had co-hosted for twenty years. That exit followed reports that his relationship with co-host Holly Willoughby had come under strain and speculation that the exit related to an affair with a younger ITV employee. Schofield said that he understood ITV had decided that “the current situation [could] not go on.”

Today, the presenter said in a lengthy statement sent to the Daily Mail: “I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning. Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.”

Schofield was still married to his wife Stephanie Lowe at the time of the affair. The presenter opened up about being gay in 2020, but remained married to Lowe.

Schofield said today that he wouldn’t be working with ITV in the near future after the broadcaster had said it would look to find a gig for him after his exit from This Morning. He also confirmed to the Daily Mail that he will not be presenting the British Soap Awards next week – a role he has had since 2006.

You can read Schofield’s entire statement sent to the Daily Mail below:

‘I am making this statement via the Daily Mail to whom I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story which they wanted to write about me a few days ago.

The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.

Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.

When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody “forced” me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me.

In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.

But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.

I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.

I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me.

I will reflect on my very bad judgement in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it.

To protect his privacy, I am not naming this individual and my deepest wish is that both he and his family can now move on with their lives free from further intrusion, and that this statement will enable them to do so.

I ask the media now to respect their privacy. They have done nothing wrong, and I ask that their privacy should be respected.’

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