Phillip Schofield’s daughter Molly says she’s ‘proud to call him her dad’ and admits she ‘never thought he’d recover’ from battle with suicidal thoughts after This Morning scandal

Phillip Schofield’s daughter Molly emotionally declares she is ‘proud to call him her father’ in the latest episode of his Cast Away series.

The former This Morning star, 62, stunned the nation when he revealed he would make his TV comeback in the Channel 5 series, in which he has to fend for himself for 10 days on a remote island paradise.

In the programme, Phillips’ daughters and his wife Stephanie Lowe discuss for the first time the impact of his affair confession and subsequent departure from ITV.

In the third and final episode of the Cast Away series, airing on Wednesday, Molly, 31, admits she ‘never thought’ Phillip would recover from his struggles with suicidal thoughts in the wake of the scandal.

In the final moments of the episode, Phillip returns from his time stranded on a desert island, having come back to life after 18 challenging months.

His daughter Molly then says: ‘When we saw him recover, we never thought this would happen. We never thought this would happen. So now he is where he is. It’s the best thing ever, seeing how far he’s come.

“I am so incredibly proud to say he is my father, and always will be, no matter what.”

Earlier in the series, Phillip spoke about how “dark” his life became, saying his daughters helped him “step back from the edge.”

He said: ‘In the last 18 months it has become as dark as it can get. A year ago I came so close.

“I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready and it was Molly who looked after me, Molly and Ruby (daughters) were both looking after me at the time and Molly said can you imagine what this would do to us? if you actually managed to get this done.

“Can you imagine what would happen and can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this under my watch?

And that was enough to take a step back from the edge. And I could have been hospitalized, I had the option of being hospitalized, but I thought that would work out, so I ran to my parents’ house.”

In 2020, Phillip shocked the country when he came out as gay, but he and Stephanie remained married even though they split later that year.

In the first episode of Cast Away, which airs on Monday, Molly opened up about how difficult the past few years have been for her family.

She said: ‘What people don’t realize is that they are abusing you, but other people are being harmed by it.’

Molly, who works as her father’s publicist, added: “We’ve seen him in his worst times, but I’ve been so proud of him, and as a daughter to see the love that people had for him, that when those being taken away it’s just heartbreaking.’

“Strangely enough, everything that’s happened lately has brought us closer together.”

“When my dad came out, it was really hard for me,” Molly continued.

‘It was very difficult for the whole family. Especially my mother of course, everything was turned upside down. But we talked about it and over time it got easier.”

Phillip secretly filmed the Channel 5 special Cast Away, forcing him to give up his home comforts for ten days of soul searching on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean.

During the show he discusses his bitter split with ITV and This Morning, which he presented for 21 years while fending for himself on the island paradise, located off the coast of Madagascar.

His wife Stephanie’s world came crashing down when it finally became public knowledge in May 2023 that Phillip had had a years-long affair with a much younger male ITV colleague.

Phil and Stephanie never legally divorced and sources close to the couple previously said she “still loves him very much” and will always remain in his “support system” with their daughters Molly and Ruby.

Phillip has not worked since leaving This Morning in May 2023, shortly before the affair came to light. His co-host and once close friend, Holly Willoughby, later exited herself, with Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard taking over their roles.

Phillip quit ITV completely after admitting he lied to the Ny Breaking about his affair.

Friends of the star were ‘pretty sure’ he would never work again after his confession, but Channel 5 changed that.

Someone said at the time: ‘Phillip has been very, very down lately. He doesn’t know how to get back to work. It’s horrible for him to realize this, but he also knows there’s not much he can do about it. He doesn’t know who will take him. He knows there is no going back to ITV or the BBC.’

Sources close to Schofield say his friends are trying to encourage him to think he can have a “fulfilling life” outside of show business.

One said: ‘Just because he may not be on TV anymore doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy his life. Phil isn’t so sure, though.’

Before the Channel 5 gig, Phillip was tipped for a job in national radio – his ‘first love’ – with Britain’s biggest commercial broadcasters jostling to bring him in to gain new listeners from rivals including BBC Radio 2 to recruit.

An ITV report in December 2023 cleared bosses of a cover-up of the affair and made no further damaging claims about Schofield’s relationship with a young runner on the show.

Despite claims of a ‘whitewash’, industry insiders told MailOnline it was the door to the star getting a new big-money deal to return to work in 2024.

But a leading British broadcasting source said a return to television for Schofield is ‘unlikely for now’.

Schofield is said to have turned down a selection of big-money TV offers before choosing to sign up for Cast Away – which he believes will allow him to share his story in an ‘raw and honest’ way.

Phillip Schofield: Cast Away airs Monday 30 September, Tuesday 1 October and Wednesday 2 October at 9pm on Channel 5.