Technicolour nightmare: the inside story of Phillip Schofield’s shocking downfall

For more than four decades, the former ‘This Morning’ presenter was synonymous with bulletproof affability, writes Ed Power. It’s only made his cataclysmic fall from grace that much more surprising

The former ‘This Morning’ presenter in one of his final appearances on the programme in April (Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

The Phillip Schofield who sat down with the BBC a few days ago to discuss his exit from This Morning was unrecognisable from the wholesome figure who has charmed television viewers for the past 40 years or so. His features were sunken, the pallor of his skin suggested sleepless nights and spiralling thoughts. “I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart,” he said in his first interview since his high-profile departure from the show he’s fronted for 21 years. “It is relentless – day after day after day.”

He was evoking the memory of the late Caroline Flack, who took her life after becoming the subject of a social media pile-on in 2020. Schofield, 61, who resigned from ITV after admitting to an “unwise but not illegal relationship” with a man in his mid-twenties who once worked on This Morning with him, felt he was in a similar social-media crosshairs. A national treasure had become a national disgrace, and it was too much for him to process.

The extent to which the controversy had caused him to unravel was clear in the new interview. Schofield was a broken man who implied he had entertained thoughts of suicide. He said that had his daughters not supported him, he “wouldn’t be here. They’ve guarded me and won’t let me out of their sight.”