Phillip Schofield has insisted that he did not groom the young man who he had an affair with whilst working on This Morning.
Schofield, 61, resigned from ITV last Friday (26th May) and was dropped by the talent agency YMU after admitting to the affair with a colleague more than 30 years his junior.
The runner was only 15 when Schofield first met him at a theatre school, which has led to speculation that their later relationship was the result of grooming.
Schofield, however, denies accusations of grooming and says the scandal that envelopes him has left him “utterly broken.”
Speaking to The Sun, he said:
“I did not, I did not (groom him). I am deeply sorry and I apologise to him because I should have known better. I should have acted the way I have always acted. I should not have done it.
“I’m sorry. And I will forever be sorry. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified.”
The affair took place while Schofield was married to Stephanie Lowe, with whom he shares two daughters, Molly and Ruby. In February 2020, he came out as gay, a move that many suspect was a press play to hide his affair.
After he confessed the affair to his wife, he said that she was “very, very angry.”
“She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, ‘I need to talk to you’. She called back and I told her. She was very, very angry.”
The disgraced presenter went on to say that the fallout from the affair has left him “in a very bad way” mentally.
“I am in a very bad way. Mentally, utterly, utterly broken. And if it hadn’t been for my girls last week I wouldn’t be here.
“I have just felt like I was going lower and lower and lower and lower. And then, this bizarre, numbness washes over you, like a selfishness.
“I’ve had such a s*** couple of years, and with this ultimate final cataclysm, I looked ahead at nothing and the girls said, ‘Don’t, we are here to look after you. Don’t you dare do it on our watch’.
“And that took me one step back and they won’t leave me alone. They were guarding me.”
