ITV’s McCall concedes Schofield affair was an ‘imbalance of power’

Carolyn McCall, ITV’s CEO, has acknowledged that Phillip Schofield’s relationship with his younger colleague was ‘imbalanced’.

On Saturday 20th May, Phillip Schofield announced that he had “stepped down” from This Morning amid reports of a rift with co-host Holly Willoughby. In the week that followed, he revealed his “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a young runner on the show, resigning in full from ITV.

Due to the fact the runner was his junior on the daytime show, Schofield’s behaviour has been widely condemned as an ‘abuse of power’. The runner was underage when Schofield first met him, and he later mentored him as he entered the television industry. Schofield has denied accusations of grooming.

At the time of his resignation ITV said it was ‘deeply disappointed by the admissions of deceit’.

Disgraced Phillip Schofield who had an affair with a much-younger colleague

Appearing at a government committee on Wednesday, McCall conceded that there was a clear imbalance of power in the affair.

‘The imbalance of dynamics in that relationship makes it deeply inappropriate and we have policies that say that very clearly.”

She added that ITV worked ‘very, very hard for many months’ to ask the two men involved, as well as those in production, ‘if they knew something was going on’.

‘It was repeatedly denied by both individuals.’

MP John Nicolson asked about reports that the runner was given a pay-off, to which Kyla Mullins, general counsel and company secretary for ITV, refuted the claim, pointing out that his role was made redundant.

“I wouldn’t characterise it as a pay-off. His role was made redundant.”