An evening with I’m A Celebrity host Declan Donnelly captured by the paparazzi surely sparked speculation.
Was former TV star Phillip Schofield about to make a sensational comeback?
The dinner, which took place near the fallen star’s home in west London, could be interpreted in many ways: as Dec is also close friends with Holly Willoughby, some wondered if he was acting as a go-between for the former besties, Or whether the meal was part of a cleverly choreographed rehabilitation plan to bring Schofield back to our screens, perhaps to ITV, with everyone agreeing to forgive and forget?
Absolutely not, I’m told.
This weekend marks a year since Schofield’s epic fall from grace, when, after years of lying about his long-term affair with a much younger This Morning colleague, he decided to tell the truth in a stunning mea culpa to the Mail, in which he apologized for lying to this newspaper – to me – and also to his bosses and viewers.
The reaction to this effusive regret was not what I expected. YMU, the redoubtable talent agency that had represented him for more than 25 years, immediately dropped him and forced him to resign from ITV.
Former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield, 62, was pictured earlier this month smiling with I’m A Celebrity star Declan Donnelly, 48, denouncing rumors that the Fired presenter is at stake.
But, as insiders tell me, the last 12 months have done nothing to diminish Schofield’s self-confidence. He remains furious and still considers himself the victim of the saga.
Rumors have circulated that Schofield was taking legal action against ITV, where he also presented quiz show The Cube and the now-defunct British Soap Awards. However, his lawyer, Jonathan Coad, denies this.
However, rumors continue that he will return to ITV, his home of almost 30 years, where he made his name as the king of daytime television, alongside Holly Willoughby on the This Morning sofa.
So far, every executive I’ve mentioned this to has either looked at me like I’m angry or immediately explained to me what nonsense it is.
‘We don’t want him, why would we want him to come back?’ asked a senior network staff member. “The place is much better without him.”
But perhaps the most surprising reason there won’t be a return is, I’m told, his conviction that he was wronged by ITV, where he believes he was a “loyal servant” of the channel.
During his epic fall from grace, Schofield’s failed friendship with ITV co-presenter Holly Willoughby, 43, became a national fascination.
‘Phillip firmly believes he has been mistreated by ITV. He believes he was thrown under the bus. Because of some of what he says, he feels like the victim,” a source told me.
However, as everyone knows, there is a real victim in the story: the starstruck young man who met Schofield when he was just 15, during a visit to his drama school in the northwest of England. A year later, his life has not been rosy.
He is still struggling to come to terms with the relationship and how infamous it became, particularly on social media. After leaving ITV with a payout, insiders say she went abroad. There was a time at another terrestrial station before life in the industry became too much for her and she went to work in a pub.
Although the press had agreed not to publish his name, it became an open secret, making his work behind the bar impossible. Today, in addition to having the services of a lawyer from the London firm Mishcon de Reya, he has found himself adrift in the world of celebrities that he loved so much.
‘He had so many friends at ITV, was extremely popular and hoped to build a career there. It’s a shame,” says a source.
However, according to the source, Schofield “believes he was the scapegoat.” “He can’t understand why he was the one who had to leave This Morning last May.” The BBC, I was told, “won’t touch it” and neither will other broadcasters. He was once said to be worth £8 million, but his life today couldn’t be more different.
Gone are the many industry friends who once so enjoyed being in their orbit. Gone, too, are the glitzy parties: who doesn’t remember Phil and Holly heading straight to the This Morning studios, a little disheveled and still in their evening finery, after winning a National Television Award in 2016?
Instead, there are dog walks, evenings in front of the television with his daughters Molly and Ruby and visits to Cornwall to see his elderly mother, Pat. He has been very open about the fact that he has been receiving therapy. A visit to his local pub is considered a “pleasure” these days.
As for Phil and Holly, who had been close friends since the mid-nineties when they began presenting Dancing On Ice, it seems that, as with ITV, there is no turning back.
The duo’s beloved double act disintegrated after Schofield denied his relationship with a much younger colleague.
Which takes me back to that moment, a year ago, and the phone call, on a very normal Friday afternoon, that I will never forget.
I didn’t recognize the number: it was Paul Worsley, the head of the YMU talent agency, which had represented Schofield from the beginning.
“In half an hour you’ll have a scoop,” Worsley told me. “But before that I want you to know that yesterday we separated from Phillip.”
I was stunned. What happened? For months he had been writing about the increasingly troubled relationship between Holly and Phil and two weeks earlier he had been booted from This Morning, with ITV bosses siding with him during the row.
Worsley declined to give any further explanation, other than that the statement would come through Schofield’s lawyer, Jonathan Coad. Then, ping, in my inbox was the most extraordinary email I had ever received: a full confession explaining how he had had an affair with a young man who was in his twenties at the time, more than 30 years his junior. Schofield described the affair, which took place behind the back of his wife Stephanie Lowe, as “reckless but not illegal”.
Mr Schofield was caught walking his puppy in the rain earlier this week. He has stayed away from television screens since he admitted to their relationship a year ago.
It was the culmination of a series of events that I had been praying would never happen.
For several years she had hidden her relationship with the young man. Weeks earlier, she had written a story in the Mail on Sunday about the man who was booted from the show after a row with Schofield.
All hell broke loose. Schofield ordered his lawyers to use the press regulator IPSO to protect him. However, the young man refused to move forward, leaving Schofield in a precarious position. A meeting was arranged in which he decided to confess everything and start over.
A mutual confidentiality agreement, along with a six-figure sum of money, was reached with the young man. However, no amount of money could compensate for the total devastation the affair caused in his life.
“It broke his heart to have to leave everything behind. He is slowly coming to terms with what happened, but it will take some time,’ claims an ITV insider. ‘Those around him are furious at what was allowed to happen to him.
‘She lost virtually everything as a result of being close to Phil. If anyone should claim victim status, it’s him.
