Ten Phillip Schofield claims that insiders have a different version of

When Phillip Schofield flew out to Madagascar to film his new television series, there can be no doubt it was an audacious bid to rehabilitate himself – and that he viewed the show as a platform to tell his side of his downfall.

More than a year after his ­admission that he had indulged in an affair with a much younger ­colleague – before lying to ITV, his friends, his family, and this ­newspaper about it – the three-part Channel 5 series Cast Away offered him a chance to settle some scores.

He had, after all, fallen out with his bosses at the network, his former This Morning sofa sidekick and best friend Holly Willoughby, and his management team, YMU.

Yet his former co-workers are ­furious about some of his claims made onscreen and believe the ­programme, which has been widely regarded as nothing more than a 'pity party' for the broadcaster, is inaccurate.

As they tell it, there are inconsistencies about how 62-year-old ­Schofield has presented his departure from the network last May.

One ITV insider tells me: 'Phil has been given an opportunity to say his truth, but it isn't the same as how other people remember things.'

From claiming to have turned his paedophile brother over to the police, to saying he would never have been sacked if he was a straight man, there are no fewer than ten claims of Schofield's that have left his former colleagues insisting ­recollections do vary...

Claim 1 – He turned in his paedophile brother

Schofield told viewers on Cast Away that he reported his ­paedophile brother Tim to the police after his sibling confessed to him he had ­sexually abused a boy in 2021.

The star said onscreen: 'I had absolutely no qualms whatsoever in shopping him. We were praised by the police and we got justice done.'

However, Schofield said in a statement to Exeter Crown Court, where his sibling was on trial: 'I didn't want to know any of the details, but he made it sound like a one-off. I said, 'I don't want you to tell me any more'. I said, 'You've got to stop, just never do it again'.'

He later said on social media: 'These are despicable crimes, and I welcome the guilty verdicts. As far as I am ­concerned, I no longer have a brother.'

Claim 2 – ITV sacked him because of his brother

Schofield insists he was sacked by ITV because of the bad publicity caused by his ­paedophile brother.

He said: 'I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother. I was fired for the bad publicity, for someone else's crime.'

While I'm told that Phillip did tell his ITV bosses about his brother's forthcoming trial and then agreed he would take the time off from This Morning, they say he quit the show following his fall out with Holly Willoughby.

In a statement issued by the channel in May 2023, Schofield said: 'I understand that ITV has decided the current situation can't go on, and I want to do what I can to protect the show that I love.

'So I have agreed to step down from This Morning with immediate effect.'

Claim 3 – I would never quit

'I was fired, I don't quit – I'm fired, but I don't quit,' Schofield said on Cast Away. Others at ITV, however, remember his departure differently. After he stepped down from This Morning, the broadcaster was still very much an ITV employee and was set to host the forthcoming Soap Awards.

However, a fortnight later he told the Mail he had quit ITV, saying: 'I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and ­therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family.

'I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife. I have, therefore, decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect.'

Claim 4 – Holly threw me under a bus

Describing the end of his ­tenure at ITV, Schofield says he was 'chucked under a bus' by his colleagues. Others, however, say the This Morning fall out with Holly exploded when he issued a public statement about their friendship without telling her.

In May 2023, Schofield said: 'The last few weeks haven't been easy for either of us. As I have said before, Holly is my rock.

'We're the best of friends – as always, she is an incredible ­support on screen, behind the scenes and on the phone. Holly has always been there for me, through thick and thin. And I've been there for her.'

Friends of Holly's told me at the time said she was 'blindsided' by his ­declaration and was not ­consulted about it in advance.

Claim 5 – I would never sabotage a colleague

Schofield went on to say that he 'could drive the same bus over so many people. But I'm not that sort of person. I never have been'.

One can imagine that Britain's Got Talent star Amanda Holden might disagree. She claims that he ruined her chances of co-hosting This Morning with him while Holly stepped in to present I'm A Celebrity after the co-host of that show, Ant McPartlin, took some time out.

Claim 6 – If I was straight, it would be different

ITV insiders have rubbished Schofield's onscreen claim that if he was straight and had had a relationship with a much younger woman, he never would have been in trouble.

He said mournfully on Cast Away: 'Disgraced Phillip Schofield. Who had an affair. But strangely, I think another TV presenter or two might have done exactly the same thing. Difference is heterosexual.

'If that had been the case with me and it had been a woman. Pat on the back. Well done, mate.'

ITV sources insist that would not be the case and are furious he has suggested so: 'He lied about the affair and the ­outcome would have been the same no matter what his sexual orientation.'

Claim 7 – There was no toxicity on This Morning

Schofield slammed the idea that there was a toxic culture behind the scenes on This ­Morning, telling viewers this week: 'The toxic thing, by the way, is utter b*******, created by papers. There's no toxicity. There wasn't when I was there.'

Following a DCMS select ­committee hearing about the ­Schofield scandal, its chair Dame Caroline Dinenage said she had been contacted by a 'large ­­number of individuals' after her appearance in Parliament.

She revealed: 'These individuals speak with great pride about working at ITV. However, they also raise claims of toxic working ­cultures, bullying, discrimination and harassment.'

For their part, ITV say that there was 'no finding of toxic ­culture' in their external review last year.

Claim 8 – I never wanted to be famous

As a television presenter who found fame hosting children's ­television with the soft toy, ­Gordon the Gopher, then went on to star as Joseph in the West End version of Joseph and the ­Technicolour Dreamcoat, ­Schofield never looked like a shrinking violet.

Rather, he enjoyed the ­spotlight from a young age. He even posed for his own calendars. However, on Cast Away he insists that he 'never wanted to be famous'.

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Claim 9 – I don't want all this attention now

Schofield says he now wants a quiet life and took aim at photographers.

He told Cast Away's viewers: 'If you're cancelled you can't do ­anything. I would take Alfie [his dog] for a walk and paps would be like a sniper – bugger off and let me get on with the quiet life you've given me.'

However, as a friend of the star points out: 'He has gone out of his way to make Cast Away which he knew would bring piles of attention to himself.'

Claim 10 – The s*** boss who got someone fired

Schofield lays into an ITV boss he describes as a 's***' and added that they were a 'coward because they never stepped up when I was being battered by that one journalist who thought I'd got them fired'.

In fact, the broadcast journalist discussed was not sacked by ITV, but walked away from the show he worked on because they cut down his hours back in 2019.