DAN WOOTTON: I told ITV about Schofield’s affair in 2019. What followed looks like a cover-up

I remember the critical phone call very well.

It was November 2019 and I had recently left ITV Daytime after ten years working as a showbiz presenter on the Lorraine show.

My exit from the channel was complicated.

Having been offered a new contract for the next 12 months, it had been made clear by the broadcaster’s top managers that there were two conditions attached to it, which I was unwilling to accept.

First, any kind of coverage of the then-developing Phillip Schofield scandal will immediately get you off the air (he had already tried to get me fired several times by this point).

Second, I should stop making any negative comments about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Again, that was non-negotiable for me, as within two months I was going to break Megxit’s story and all the consequences that followed for the royal family.

I told ITV’s embattled daytime head Emma Gormley to hold onto her ridiculous offer, walked out of their soulless offices in a business park near the iconic TV Center studios in London’s White City, and continued to report on the growing civil war on This Morning because that was the right thing to do.

At the time there was open revolt among ITV Daytime talent and producers that Schofield’s young male colleague and lover, who was 34 years his junior, had moved from This Morning after their relationship soured to work on Loose Women.

Like almost everyone who worked at ITV Daytime, I knew the colleague quite well – he had gone from a fun-loving and ambitious lad, aspiring to be a TV presenter, to one who was clearly under the pressure of the extraordinary circumstance he had been wrongly placed with. found itself.

I personally spoke to some of the Loose Women presenters who were outraged and worried they were dealing with the very real consequences of Phillip’s tangled professional and personal life.

At least one of the stars had made a formal complaint to management.

Another told me, “We shouldn’t be dealing with Phillip’s messed up situation. We love (the young worker) but he is in a lot of trouble right now. What if he can’t handle it?’

The Loose Women rows coincided with the first sign of tension between Phillip and Holly Willoughby, who had fallen out at the time but mended their working relationship.

Which brings me to the critical phone call with ITV’s Group Corporate Affairs and Communications Director Paul Moore – CEO Carolyn McCall’s right-hand man whom she brought with her from Easyjet in 2018.

I was editor-in-chief of The Sun at the time and had spoken to eight well-known ITV stars who expressed concern about Phillip’s “toxic” behaviour, particularly the inappropriate relationship with the man.

Surely I at least urged Moore that ITV has a duty to investigate the information we presented to him? What’s the harm in establishing the facts to ensure the duty of care to their young associate?

But he made it clear that the broadcaster had no intention of doing so.

Indeed, an ITV spokeswoman eventually dismissed my 2019 story, saying: ‘It is very disappointing and unfair for Phillip to be the target of this kind of malicious gossip.

“Phillip is a highly respected announcer and colleague and this is definitely not a description of This Morning that we recognize.”

As we now know, this was not “malicious gossip”; Phillip has now admitted having an inappropriate relationship with the young colleague, behind his wife’s back, whom he first met as a young teenager.

In a harm reduction statement, ITV management today claim they first learned of the rumors in 2020, stating: ‘ITV can confirm that when rumors of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an ITV employee first started circulating in early 2020 , ITV researched.

Both sides were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumors, as did Phillip’s then agency, YMU.

In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on This Morning who were not given any evidence of a relationship beyond rumor and rumor.

“Phillip’s statement yesterday reveals that he has lied to people at ITV, from senior management to fellow presenters, to YMU, to the media and to others about this relationship.”

But, as I just outlined, the “rumours” were known months before because they were much more than “rumours”; the man had become a non-negotiable part of Phillip’s life, with ITV cars taking him from the TV studios to the presenter’s apartment.

Given the legal restrictions on press freedom in the UK, I could only write a pale imitation of the real story, which read: ‘We have been informed that Phillips PA and personal runner – a man in his 20s – left this morning to work on Loose Women, despite a previous close friendship with him. ITV says he’s been promoted.’

I quoted a source on the show who said, “It was strange because they were so close and when he got up and went to Loose Women and they didn’t seem to talk much anymore.”

Regardless, a good number of ITV’s biggest stars reached out to express their disgust that their channel appeared to be engaged in a cover-up, possibly designed to protect one of their biggest stars from an awkward revelation.

Surprisingly, McCall—a CEO who prides herself on being super-awake and happy to get rid of the likes of Piers Morgan, Jeremy Kyle, Jeremy Clarkson, Carol McGiffin, and Eamonn Holmes for not dictating her left-wing ideology—was I was not prepared to at least investigate a growing scandal.

But the story of Phillip and his lover did not go away.

At the National Television Awards on January 28, 2020, there was an altercation between the man and both Phillip and Holly separately, witnessed by senior ITV staff in attendance, including powerhouse television director Kevin Lygo.

I also spoke to the colleague that night and was incredibly concerned about how badly the growing scandal had affected both his mental and physical health.

Contrary to erroneous and malicious internet rumours, I never suggested that the solution was an outing with Phillip Schofield, something the axed presenter confirmed last night in his bombshell statement to the Daily Mail, saying: ‘Nobody ‘forced’ me out.’

However, Phillip clearly knew the story wasn’t going to go away, so just a week later made his decision to appear on the This Morning couch, bringing Holly, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford into the announcement.

Eamonn said last night that he deeply regrets being part of that charade, writing on Twitter, “Ruth and I (were) duped and lied to. One day I will tell the story. We had no problem with him being gay, just support. What happened fooled us. The man told us complete lies and unfortunately we believed him.’

Within weeks, the tension between Phillip and Holly on the ITV couch was overshadowed by the Covid-19 outbreak.

But life didn’t get any easier for the poor young man, whose dreams were dashed as he soon left ITV under a cloud.

What happens to his career now that pictures of his encounter with Phillip at drama school are rife on the internet?

I feel deeply sorry for him but know that he is surrounded by good people who are personally and professionally trying to protect him from this storm

To be fair to Phillip, he has finally told the truth and admitted his shortcomings from years of lying to the media, falling on his sword at ITV.

But a host of very uncomfortable questions remain for ITV executives about whether they’ve prioritized protecting the reputation of one of their most bankable stars rather than doing the right thing.

Not to mention their treatment of their young employee and whether they were actively covering up abuses of power.

Staff, both on and off screen, at ITV are furious with management for endangering the channel’s reputation.

Given Carolyn McCall’s tendency to forgo stars for the slightest political indiscretion, it’s hard to see how she can survive this very real scandal during her watch.