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Privacy Notice Phillip Schofield has claimed he was informed he was ‘let go’ from This Morning after over two decades in a phone call with his agent. The former host opened up during the final episode of his Channel 5 show Cast Away, claiming he was ‘sacked for his brother’s crimes’, rather than resigning from the daytime show. “When I look back, the media turning sour on me stems back to one event,” Phillip said on the island. Although he refused to name or acknowledge him, the star was referencing his brother, Timothy Schofield who was found guilty last year of 11 counts of child sex abuse.
The final episode of Cast Away aired on Wednesday night
(Image: Channel 5)
“Even though they knew all the facts, the papers painted me out to be some sort of complicit agent,” he said before saying that was where his world ‘started to collapse’. Phil said he went through ‘the full entire story’ with ITV so that they knew he hadn’t done anything wrong. However, the star claims his agent told him a decision had been made to drop him over the publicity of his brother’s trial. Recalling the phone call, which he says was a day before his brother sentence, Phil recalls his agent saying: “I’m afraid you’ve been let go from This Morning. That’s it, it’s done, you’re not going back on Monday.” “Because of what?” Phil asked, as he claims his agent responded: “I think it’s because of the publicity.”
Phil’s brother was jailed for 12 years
(Image: Instagram Phillip Schofield)
“That’s got nothing to do with me. That has nothing to do with me. Why would I be sacked for something that somebody else did? I’ve just been fired. Because of him. Because I was becoming more of a story than the programme. It was better for the show, better for the channel,” Phil continued to say on the Channel 5 show. “And I agreed to say that I’d resigned because… It would be neater for everybody. I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother. I was fired for the bad publicity. For someone else’s crime,” he continued. “And the thing is, about a week later, I blew my own wheels off with everything else, because I thought the only way to even begin to put this right for everybody is to do a full mea culpa. I came clean about my affair.” Phil continued to say he was “always open and honest” with everyone at work with what was happening with his brother. OK! has contacted ITV for comment. Earlier this week, an ITV source told The Mirror: “Phillip’s new comments are simply untrue. We stood by him through his brother’s court case and he then stepped away when things became too much. There was a lot going on and some relationships on the programme had become untenable as was reported at the time. “He then admitted himself he had been lying about an affair and he resigned from ITV altogether. We didn’t sack him, he lied to us and then he resigned, there is not much else to say.”Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnPhillip SchofieldThis Morning
