British parliament questions TV boss about fallen star Phil Schofield: ‘We didn’t look away’ | show

Television celebrity Phil Schofield left recently after twenty years This morning, an institution on British TV. He turned out to have lied to everyone around him for years about an affair with a colleague. It cost him all his work and his reputation. His former employer ITV was also under fire.

Everyone knew about it, but the affair was covered up, some TV makers who previously worked at ITV said. Nonsense, said the boss on Wednesday before a parliamentary committee about the company’s culture. He asked if the affair had been kept quiet at This morning to save. “We did ask questions, repeatedly and persistently, and were always told there was nothing going on,” McCall replied. “No one in management would look away from something so serious.”

The colleague with whom Schofield had an affair would have been asked about the rumors twelve times. Schofield himself was also questioned several times. The two always denied. Therefore, there was no reason for a larger investigation, said the ITV boss. “People who said they knew about it had only heard rumors.”

Only recently did Schofield relent and leave ITV. He called the affair “unwise, but not illegal.” His old boss is tougher: the relationship was ‘very wrong’ because of the ‘skewed balance of power’. Schofield met the colleague (now in his late 20s) when he was 15 and had occasional contact because the boy wanted to work in TV. It wasn’t until he was 20, when they were colleagues, that they had sexual contact for the first time, according to Schofield. He recently said he understands that the balance of power was lopsided, but stated that it never felt that way.

The channel has not paid the young man to keep quiet about the relationship, the ITV boss assured. McCall is worried about him because of the media frenzy in England, as he is about Schofield. He is currently in therapy, which ITV is paying for. The presenter recently turned from a beloved TV star into a pariah and, in his own words, became suicidal. Only thanks to the help of his two daughters is he still alive, he said.

It led to a call to leave him alone, because he is ultimately human and has not done anything criminal. Christine, the mother of, argued for this, among others Caroline Flack. The presenter of Loveisland committed suicide in 2020 at the age of 40 and sustained press attention was believed to have contributed to this. ITV, which Flack also worked for, has learned nothing from her death, according to her mother, and treats stars as ‘goods’. ITV doesn’t recognize that at all, McCall said.

The questioning in parliament was intended to make it clear to the House of Commons, as well as viewers and advertisers, that ITV had done nothing wrong. It is separate from one external research that is still running.

The program remains on the tube for the time being. Schofield presented This morning with his TV partner Holly Willoughby, who recently returned after a period of absence. In a speech to the viewers, she called her old buddy a liar, but also said she was worried about his mental health.

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