Piers Morgan is back on Uncensored, and he only has one topic on his mind.
With Phillip Schofield‘s infidelity scandal and departure, the controversial broadcaster, like many of the country, has been fascinated by recent events surrounding ITV and This Morning.
It’s been little over a week since Schofield, 61, claimed on the show that he lied about an affair with a much younger male colleague when he was married and before coming out as homosexual in 2020.
Schofield resigned from his ITV hosting responsibilities with ‘immediate effect’ after apologised for misleading his superiors and colleagues about his intimate relationship with the runner.
The former daytime star kept a quiet profile until he gave two explosive interviews to The Sun and the BBC, describing his version of events and how the repercussions has affected his mental health.
Schofield added that he ‘wouldn’t be here’ if it weren’t for his children, and that he felt the same way Caroline Flack did before she committed suicide at the age of 40.
Morgan has mentioned the incident a few times on Twitter, but he appears to be holding his tongue in preparation for his return to our screens.
And he didn’t hold back, leaping to Schofield’s defence.
Speaking on Uncensored on Monday night), the former Good Morning Britain host, 58, expressed compassion for Schofield’s situation.
‘It reached a crescendo. After Schofield gave his interview, I looked at him… I’ve known him a long time, 35 years. I wrote a biography of Phillip Schofield, literally in the nineties, and I looked at the guy and I thought, you are completely broken,’ he said.
‘When someone is in that condition, even though I felt that his comparison to Caroline Flack was clumsy and he probably shouldn’t have said that, he probably meant it.
‘He probably did genuinely feel like, “What’s left? I may as well kill myself”.’
Morgan also made strong claims about ITV.
‘One thing I know for sure, a lot of people at ITV knew about the rumours of the relationship. I mean everybody knew at ITV,’ he said.
‘Let’s be crystal clear, that building was a buzz with this for about three years because three years ago, at the National TV Awards, in the ITV box, the young man concerned in this story confessed his undying love for Phillip Schofield. Everybody knew that.’
Mockingly sticking his fingers in his ears, he added: ‘This idea that the whole of management is going, “We didn’t know anything about it!”, I mean, come on!
‘That I know is not true.’
He then discussed his own resignation from GMB, with Dame Carolyn McCall, who was also the CEO of ITV at the time.
Morgan alleges he was forced to either apologise for not believing Meghan Markle or quit, and he chose the latter.
Miffed at the way his exit was handled, he said: ‘After 15 years, I didn’t even get a thank you. At least Schofield got a 30-second message from Dermot O’Leary on the Monday, thanking him. I got nothing!’
Hitting out once more, he said: ‘My experience with ITV management is that, when it suits them, they’ll lie through their back teeth.
‘Secondly, the way they handle talent is morally schizophrenic. Depending who you are, and how important they think you are to the firm at any given moment, or how important your agency is, they look at all those things and make moral judgements based on that kind of stuff. That’s where they lose me. It’s not consistent.’
ITV has always denied having any knowledge of Phillip Schofield’s affair.
After his initial admission, they said they felt ‘badly let down’ by the fact that he lied.
Later, they claimed to have investigated rumours of an affair between Schofield and the young runner in 2020, but found no supporting evidence.
However, the runner, who no longer works for ITV after leaving a few years ago, denied ever being questioned.
Schofield also stated that there was no ‘official’ inquiry and that if questioned about the connection, he would always deny it.
Meanwhile, an official inquiry into charges of ‘toxicity’ at ITV and the circumstances surrounding Schofield’s departure has begun.
The investigation’s results will be made public, according to This Morning editor Martin Frizell.
MPs will interview executive Dame Carolyn later this month.
