Inside Philip Schofield’s 16-month break from TV from This Morning presenter’s summer of ‘survival’ to reuniting with ITV pals – as he announces return for C5’s Castaway

It’s been over a year since Philip Schofield left This Morning in a cloud of scandal after admitting to having an affair with a much younger male colleague.

But after a 16-month absence from television, Phillip is returning next week for Channel 5’s Castaway.

Channel 5 confirmed that Phillip was “left alone with just a handful of cameras to capture his own experience”, which was described as “an authentic and intense physical and mental challenge”.

Phillip announced the news on Instagram on Wednesday, writing, “Now you know how I spent my summer! 10 days alone, no food, no water, no crew. My story of survival, both on a desert island and off it.”

But what has life been like for the presenter since he left the scenes?

MailOnline looks back at Phillips’ year off television, from his family’s help with PR to reuniting with his friends at ITV.

‘Story of survival’ comeback on TV

Phillip broke down in tears in a trailer for the upcoming ‘survival’ show as he said the scandal surrounding his departure from This Morning ‘destroyed’ him.

The disgraced presenter spent his summer secretly filming a special three-part series for Channel 5, which saw him abandon his home comforts for 10 days of soul-searching on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean, in what he described as his “story of survival”.

In a clip from the show, released today, Phillip is seen tearfully telling the camera: “I know what I did was unwise, but is it enough to destroy someone completely?”

The series will be broadcast on three evenings, from Monday 30 September to Tuesday 1 October, in three episodes of 60 minutes.

The story follows Phillip, who spends ten days and nine nights as a castaway on a remote, uninhabited island off the coast of Madagascar.

Viewers will see the sacked presenter reflect on the emotional impact of his banishment from mainstream television after news of his affair with a 20-year-old jogger emerged on This Morning.

Phillip was reportedly given a handheld camera, body cams and a sound kit before embarking on his emotional week-and-a-half-long journey.

Drafting Family PR Assistance

Last year, Phillip was quickly fired by his agents at YMU Group after admitting to having an affair with a junior employee.

But it seems his daughter has taken the lead and taken over the role of his manager.

Phillip entrusted his daughter Molly, 30, with representing him, helping to make his brand a family brand.

Molly is listed as Phil’s manager on talent database The Media Eye and it appears she now runs her own company, MMS Projects.

It was previously revealed that her first project was to curate a new positive image for Phil online.

Amid rumours that Phil is pursuing a new career in television, Phil began posting on Instagram again earlier this year, featuring his dog Alfie.

Until January of this year, Molly worked at YMU, the employment agency that represented Phil for 35 years.

Sadly, it was reported that she was in the office when she heard that her father had confessed on the This Morning programme to having an affair with a young male runner.

Reuniting with ITV friends

Although Phillip was no longer seen on British television, he received support from his friends at ITV after he left the channel.

In May, Phillip discreetly went out for four hours of dinner and drinks with I’m A Celebrity presenter Declan Donnelly.

The dinner took place near the fallen star’s home in West London and aDec’s wife Ali Astall and Phillips’ dog also joined the giggling pair for dinner.

But it’s not just Ant who has supported the star over the past year, as a source previously revealed, with Alison Hammond also standing by his side.

The current This Morning presenter showed her support for Phillip in June when she liked an Instagram post featuring a picture of his dog.

The dinner between Phillip and Dec marks the first time the two have been seen together in public since the This Morning scandal.

Bystanders reported that the couple appeared cheerful and were laughing and joking together as if it were a normal night out.

A friend of the presenter revealed Phil’s plans for a possible return to television and spoke of the support from his ITV friends.

They said: “They’ve all rallied around him and their support, especially from Dec who is such a good friend, has really helped Phil. Some TV executives have contacted Phil about a possible return and his friends have told him he should consider it.

For sale: ‘plush’ apartment used for ‘secret dates’

In February, it was revealed that Phillip had sold the apartment where he used to spend ‘Playtime Thursdays’ with his younger lover after lowering the asking price.

Phillip and his wife Stephanie are said to have put the ‘immaculate’ two-bedroom penthouse in south London on the market for £1.2 million – £25,000 less than they paid in 2012, when it was first built.

And an advertisement from estate agent Cluttons now described the property as ‘sale agreed’, when they had put it up for ‘offers over £1 million’.

According to his former colleague Eamonn Holmes, this was where Schofield took his younger colleague for secret rendezvous, before the studio employee left the next morning in a taxi paid for by ITV.

“It’s been on the market for a while. Apparently there was one bid recently, but the buyer backed out,” a source said. The sun last year.

“It appears the Schofields are no longer concerned about profit and simply want to get rid of it after their split.”

In an interview with Dan Wootton on GB News, Holmes claimed that Schofield’s lover was secretly driven between ITV’s studios and the presenter’s apartment in an attempt to conceal their affair.

The pair are said to have entered through an adjacent hotel so as not to raise any suspicion of their secret rendezvous.

Eamonn said: ‘Thursday was game time, he and Phillip went into town and then he stayed overnight of course. There is documentation to show he was brought in separately the next day in cars paid for by ITV.’

He called the younger man “a lovely guy” and a “really good, talented guy” and said the taxi ride to work on Friday morning was part of a “cover-up” by ITV bosses.