Disgraced Phillip Schofield has paid his much younger lover a six-figure sum in a deal that prevents him from speaking about their relationship, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The star’s former colleague, 34 years his junior, signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in exchange for the payment, preventing him from speaking about the scandal that ignominiously ended the presenter’s decades-long television career last year.
Schofield, 61, has been in the wilderness since admitting the affair and lying to his ITV employers in an extraordinary mea culpa to the Mail last May.
A lawyer representing the former This Morning presenter has confirmed that an agreement was signed with his ex-lover last year, including a “mutual confidentiality provision” and a payment to compensate the man for losses suffered.
The man was just 15 when he met Schofield, who helped him land a coveted job as a runner on This Morning at the age of 19.
A disgraced Phillip Schofield paid his much younger lover a six-figure sum in a deal that prevents him from speaking about their relationship, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Schofield with the man she had an affair with and former This Morning co-presenter Holly Willoughby.
Schofield, 61, has been in the wilderness since admitting the affair and lying to his ITV employers in an extraordinary mea culpa to the Mail last May.
A romantic relationship between the pair began when the man was 20, after which he moved to another ITV daytime show, Loose Women. Later he left the channel with a separate payment.
Despite the clause preventing both parties from speaking about the matter, Schofield revealed intimate details of their relationship when interviewed by the BBC’s Amol Rajan last June.
A source familiar with the NDA told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The young man has been frail for some time. That is not a secret.
‘A payment was made for various matters following Phillip’s decision to speak out about their relationship and, as part of that, a confidentiality agreement was arranged and signed.
‘It means Phil knows his young ex will never be able to talk about his relationships, so he can probably sleep much better at night now.
“He has lost a lot, but imagine that if all the details were known, it would be a cataclysm for him.”
‘As for the young man, let’s hope that he can now move on with his life and rebuild it, but it is not easy.
“And it’s a bit rich to put forward a non-disclosure agreement after Phil spoke to the BBC last year.”
The man, who ITV referred to only as Person X during its investigation, was represented by leading London law firm Mishcon de Reya in the negotiations over the NDA.
In the BBC interview, Schofield insisted he had not groomed the young man after meeting him at drama school.
Schofield admitted to relationship with younger colleague (pictured together)
Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby embrace as he comes out as gay on the TV show ‘This Morning’ in 2020 before the pandemic.
Phil and Holly photographed on This Morning two decades ago in 2004.
Confessing to be “totally devastated and ashamed,” he added: “We were teammates, and one day, in my dressing room, something happened that I will obviously regret forever, for him and for me, especially for him, but that happened.” maybe four or five times over the next few months.
‘I know it’s unforgivable. But we weren’t boyfriends. We weren’t in a relationship. “I was really in a mess with my own sexuality at the time, and it just happened.”
Schofield also said the man got his role on This Morning “on his own merit… because he was so good at his job.” And he added: ‘Everyone loved him. He worked very hard.’
The former Dancing On Ice presenter participated in the interview after confessing the affair he carried out behind his wife Stephanie Lowe’s back.
In his explosive statement to the Daily Mail, Schofield described the relationship as “reckless but not illegal” and confessed to lying to colleagues, friends and agents at management company YMU.
In the statement, he said: “I am making this statement through the Daily Mail, to whom I have already personally apologized for misleading me, through my lawyer, who I also misled, about a story they wanted to write about me a few days ago.” . .
‘The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for lying to them and many others about a relationship I had with someone who worked on This Morning.
‘I had a consensual on-off relationship with a younger colleague on This Morning.
“Contrary to speculation, although I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him get into television, it was only after he started working on the show that it became more than just a friendship.
‘That relationship was reckless, but not illegal. It’s over.’
The young man, now 27, declined to comment on the deal or any of its details.