ITV has published findings from its external inquiry into former “This Morning” anchor Phillip Schofield‘s affair with a PA on the show.
The network hired lawyer Jane Mulcahy KC to conduct an internal review earlier this year after Schofield admitted he had carried out an “unwise but not illegal” affair with the young staffer. The resulting fall-out saw him step down from the daytime magazine show after two decades and be dropped by his agent. His long-time co-anchor, Holly Willoughby, also stepped down a few months later after finding herself the victim of a kidnap plot.
Mulcahy was tasked with examining how much ITV knew about Schofield’s workplace relationship with the unnamed PA (to maintain his anonymity he has been dubbed “Person X” in the report) as well as the way in which ITV handled complaints about “This Morning” in general. After Schofield’s affair was exposed, a number of former contributors and employees on the show came forward to describe the atmosphere on “This Morning” as “toxic.”
“ITV’s management made considerable efforts to determine the truth about an alleged relationship between Schofield and Person X following on from the publication of a story in The Sun newspaper in early December 2019,” Mulcahy concluded. “However, in the face of the denials of the individuals involved, ITV was unable to uncover the relevant evidence until PS’s admission in late May 2023.”
More to come…
