Carol McGiffin claims Loose Women runner ‘was AXED to make room for Phillip Schofield’s lover

Former Loose Women star Carol McGiffin has claimed a contestant on the show was fired to make way for Phillip Schofield’s ‘much younger’ lover.

The former This Morning presenter, 61, sat down with Amol Rajan on Thursday to discuss the revelation that he had had an extra-marital relationship with a young runner on the ITV magazine show and his subsequent departure.

A host of ITV staff have spoken out in the wake of the news, with Phillip admitting he met the runner when he was 15, then landed him a role on ITV – before being moved from This Morning to Loose Women after the flight.

While these allegations were denied by Phillip, Carol remained defiant when she appeared on GB News, saying: “Everyone was pretty upset about it because you know everyone loved him and he was a great runner…

“I got a text one day and it was from the young man in question and he said, ‘I’m the new production secretary at Loose Women.’

“I thought, wait a minute what happened here.” I didn’t even know he was gone at the time. He was a great guy [and then] he disappeared.’

Phillip has revealed that his affair with a young studio runner began with a kiss in a locker room before “five or six” sexual encounters. The former This Morning presenter said the encounter took place in the ITV studios when the man was 20.

Directly asked by Amol if he had any kind of sexual relationship when his former lover was a minor, he said, “God no. My statement says ”consensual relationship, completely legal”, that’s what I mean [the statement] was approved by both parties.’

He recalled how the affair started, saying, “He had been working on the show for a few months and we became buddies, we were buddies.”

“In the studios, we hung out together, chatted, things like that. And then one day in my dressing room something happened that of course I will forever regret for him and for me – especially for him.

“That happened maybe four or five times over the next few months, and I know it’s inexcusable, but we weren’t boyfriends, we weren’t in a relationship. I was really confused about my sexuality at the time and it just happened.”

Schofield said he first started following his former lover on Twitter when he was 15 after a friend asked him to.

The broadcaster explained that he was invited by a friend to attend a school, something he says he has done “thousands of times”.

He claimed he was later asked to follow back ‘a fan’ on Twitter, who was 15 years old at the time – to which the presenter agreed.

Schofield recounted the first time they met, telling Rajan, “I was invited by a friend of mine to open a drama school…

“But whether it was right now or a while later,” he said, “will you follow him on Twitter, because he’s a fan.” So I said, ‘Yes, of course, no problem,’ which I did.”

Rajan added, “And what was he then, 15?”.

Schofield said, “I follow 11,300 people, and in all my time on Twitter, there’s never been a hint of inappropriateness.”

He continued that the pair had “barely” contact, but the young man had later reached out to ask “if he could visit the studios, something like work experience. I said: come and see what he did.’

He told Rajan that the man was 19 when he first expressed interest in a television career, and when asked by Rajan if, looking back at their posts, it had “any sense that you were flirting with him,” Schofield said: No, it was work stuff.

He added: ‘I’ve been on television for 41 years. Nothing like this before. No accusations.’

He strongly denied that he had “groomed” his former lover or sent him sexual messages before the start of their relationship.

The presenter said he hadn’t fallen in love with the man and didn’t feel there was an imbalance of power because “we’d become buddies.”

Asked what the end of their relationship was, he said, “I started to get into a very bad mental state with my own sexuality at that point. And it just sort of drifted off. We stayed friends, we are still friends.

“And I’ve given him work and runners on other shows I did because he was a really good runner and a buddy. It’s always nice to have a team around you that knows you.

Phil said the last time he had contact with his former lover was “a few weeks” ago when he got him a lawyer because he needed “independent” support.