NTAs: Phillip Schofield thanks ‘best friend’ Holly Willoughby

Earlier this year, Phillip Schofield resigned from ITV and This Morning when he sensationally admitted to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger colleague.

Phillip, 61, had met the man during a visit to the then-15-year-old’s school when he was in his 40s.

The pair then connected on Twitter and the man landed a job as a runner on This Morning in 2016.

He would have been 20 at the time and Phillip says their relationship turned romantic a few months later.

Phillip had reportedly “been in the habit of inviting his young lover to glitzy functions”, including the National Television Awards.

READ MORE: Holly Willoughby smiles alone for ITV promo video after Phillip Schofield’s exit

In 2018, the man was among the This Morning team as they took to the stage to accept an NTA.

He was also pictured at the O2 Arena in 2020 kissing Holly Willoughby on the cheek and having a brief conversation with the presenter and her husband Dan Baldwin.

Phillip is not seen in the photographs with the man but was also at the event alongside his then-wife Stephanie Lowe.

According to the Daily Mail, before the photographs were taken the man “declared his love” for Phillip, to the astonishment of their ITV colleagues.

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The publication reports: “Schofield’s friend stunned his ITV colleagues by, as one put it, ‘declaring his love for Phil in no uncertain terms’.”

Less than two weeks later, Phillip publicly came out as gay in an emotional Instagram post moments before speaking about it in a live This Morning interview.

In the same year, ITV launched an investigation but did not find any evidence of their relationship.

The broadcaster confirmed this in a statement in May, saying: “When rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in early 2020 ITV investigated.

“Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours as did Phillip’s then agency YMU.

“In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on This Morning and were not provided with, and did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.”

The statement came after Phillip admitted to lying to people at ITV as well as his family and friends.

He said: “I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.

“In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.

“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.”

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