ITV have reportedly lost millions of pounds in advertising revenue after the revelation of Phillip Schofield's affair with a younger man who worked on This Morning.
The news of the relationship that occurred while the presenter was still married has resulted in Arnold Clark confirming that they won't be renewing their mega-money deal.
With the nation appalled by the scandal, a source said: "Brands do not feel ITV is a safe bet at the moment."
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With the heat on ITV studious, after claims that several high-ranking figures knew of the affair, they've reportedly attempted to remove all trace of Schofield, with editor Martin Frizell reportedly wanting it to be "like he never existed".
A source told The Sun: "All traces of Phil and his career are being stripped out of the This Morning studios and from ITV’s base in White City."
Arnold Clark said: "Our existing sponsorship of This Morning will end this Autumn as planned.”
In a column written for The Mail Online, Dan Wootton claimed: "I told ITV about Phillip Schofield's affair with his young colleague in 2019 and urged them to investigate, but they dismissed it as 'malicious gossip'. What followed looks like nothing short of a cover-up."
ITV are now thought to be panicking, with a source claiming: "There is a lot of speculation about This Morning’s future, and some staff are concerned about their jobs.
"Phil’s admission of deceit has plunged ITV into a crisis which it has never been faced with before. It is widely known internally that they have lost over £2million in sponsorship deals since Phil’s affair became public.
“Guests have been dropping out left, right and centre. It is like a house of cards that is crumbling. The atmosphere is very much that of ‘Keep calm and carry on’, but it’s going to be a difficult week. This Morning is seen as toxic right now, and people do not want to be associated with it.”
Tweeting on the matter, Eamon Holmes said: "Schofield has finally been caught out … But he's not the only guilty party. Four high members of ITV management knew what sort of man he was …and NEVER once took action to prevent him controlling or taking advantage of his position over young people."
The Sun claim they informed ITV of concerns about Schofield’s relationship with the youngster three years ago.
The publication had heard that there was an “open revolt” between ITV daytime staff and producers over the star’s growing relationship with the young man, who he'd formed a tight bond with when he a teenager at a theatre club before getting him a job at This Morning.
Comedian Daniel O'Reilly, who previously worked for ITV, tweeted: "Amount of stick I got for talking about this last week, bringing up the hypocrisy of being sacked for a joke when so much worse was going on. This was common knowledge in the industry. What’s not common knowledge is the lad's age when they met."
On May 27, it was reported that Schofield had hired a renowned law firm to "protect" his former lover.
However, the younger man opted to bravely confess the truth to his legal team, which prompted Phil to make his statement.
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