Phillip Schofield has been spotted looking downcast, seen for the first time since his bombshell ITV exit after admitting his affair with a much younger runner.
Appearing gloomy, he was pictured packing his car, clutching his phone, car keys and a vape.
This comes after he revealed he now has a ‘collection of blisters and calluses’ after continually vaping due to stress.
The former This Morning presenter left the show after more than 20 years and resigned from the broadcaster altogether a week later, after admitting he had an ‘unwise but not illegal’ relationship with a runner on the show.
The pair had met when the young man was 15, but the 61-year-old said that the affair only began when he was 20 years old, however Schofield has since admitted he did lie about the nature of their relationship to his bosses and colleagues.
He went on to give several explosive interviews with The Sun and the BBC, addressing the scandal, Holly Willoughby and his mental health.
For the first time since, he’s now been seen in public looking down.
In the pictures, he sports a casual look, wearing a blue t-shirt and white shorts, as he packed his car.
It has been reported he was on his way to celebrate his mum Pat’s 87th birthday.
This comes after Schofield emotionally said he ‘wouldn’t still be here’ without his daughters, Molly and Ruby, and stated he didn’t believe he would work in TV again.
‘I’ve lost everything. It’s all gone,’ he also told The Sun frankly.
‘Telly was my safe space, the one thing I loved. Now I don’t know if I will ever work on telly again.’
He went on to say that he doesn’t know what his ‘identity’ is anymore.
‘I don’t know who I am now. What happens in six months time? What am I going to do?
‘I have the rest of my life now to try and plan for Steph and the girls, and hope that I can look after them.’
He elsewhere spoke about the effect the stress has had on him, leading him to continually vaping.
‘I am in a very bad way. Mentally, utterly, utterly broken,’ he told the outlet. ‘I think when you’ve caused this damage, you can expect nothing. It’s my fault. I completely understand.’
‘I’ve been vaping, a lot,’ he sighed. ‘I didn’t realise until suddenly it hurt, but I’ve been sitting looking up at the sky or out of the window, just staring into space.
‘I just sit on the sofa and stare. I realise by doing that, I’ve blistered both hands.’
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
Phillip Schofield’s tell-all interview: The key points
Phillip Schofield bared all in interviews with The Sun and BBC amid the fallout of confessing to an affair with a This Morning runner. Here is what he said:
‘I did not groom him’
Schofield insists he is not a groomer, saying that while he met the former colleague while he was a teenager, their interactions were innocent and only became sexual when the runner was around 20/21 years old.
He said it never felt like an ‘abuse of power’ because they were ‘mates’.
The affair began in 2017
He has said that the affair began after a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room.
‘It was not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates,’ he insisted. ‘It wasn’t feelings (I was getting), it was more like mates: excitement.’
His wife is ‘very, very angry’
The affair took place while Schofield was married to wife Stephanie Lowe, with whom he shares two daughters.
On the moment he told his wife, he said: ‘She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, “I need to talk to you”. She called back and I told her. She was very, very angry.’
Schofield still wears his wedding ring, but explained that he and Stephanie are ‘separated’.
His daughters saved his life
Schofield confessed to feeling suicidal amid the fallout of his affair and the ‘relentless’ media attention.
His two daughters – Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27 – have been ‘afraid’ to leave his side and warned him: ‘Don’t you dare do this on our watch.’
‘If it hadn’t been for my girls last week, I wouldn’t be here.’
He has apologised to Holly Willoughby
After rumours of a fallout between the pair and after Holly Willoughby said she was lied to by Schofield after asking him about his affair, he has apologised to his former co-presenter.
He said: ‘I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down (Holly). I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.
‘Holly did not know (about the romance). And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, “I am so, so sorry that I lied to you”.’
He will ‘die sorry’ to the runner he had the affair with
‘I have massive guilt, and regret. I’ve made a mistake, I’ve had an affair at work. I think my greatest apology must go to him. It has brought the greatest misery into his totally innocent life, his totally innocent family, his totally innocent friends.
‘It has brought the greatest grief to them.’
The colleague has not been named in the press for his privacy.
No pay-offs
Schofield denied allegations that the runner received hush money from ITV, saying the promotion he got wasn’t to ‘move him on’ but because of his own talents.
He also insisted that the young man did not sign an NDA preventing him from speaking out.
Comparing age gap backlash to ‘homophobia’
‘So yeah, there’s a difference. It’s accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world,’ he said of age differences.
‘Attraction is attraction. It’s no different in the gay world as it is in the heterosexual world or in the lesbian world. There shouldn’t be a difference. This is where homophobia comes in.’
Eamonn Holmes is an ‘angry’ man
After Eamonn Holmes made a series of strong allegations against Schofield, he said the Irish TV presenter is just ‘angry’ he’s not on This Morning anymore.
He also continuously denied that This Morning is ‘toxic’.
Doesn’t think he’ll work in TV again
Schofield said it ‘breaks [my] heart’ to talk about TV in the past tense, but he doesn’t see a way back for him.
‘I do not think I will be able to walk down a street ever again. It is like everybody knows.
‘I’ve lost everything. It’s all gone,’ he said frankly.
‘Telly was my safe space, the one thing I loved. Now I don’t know if I will ever work on telly again.’
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