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A former ITV producer today claimed 'everyone' among the production staff at This Morning knew about Phillip Schofield's affair with a much younger colleague and that it was 'difficult to believe' senior figures were not aware too.
Cristo Foufas, who is now a presenter on TalkTV but previously worked for the ITV production unit that includes This Morning, described their relationship as an 'open secret'.
'I was a producer at ITV Daytime during the period where this was all taking place,' he told the Jeremy Vine Show. 'It was known among the production staff and people lower down the food chain what was going on. Everyone knew that he was with Phillip.'
Asked whether Holly Willoughby was also in the loop, he said: 'It's difficult to believe that more people didn't know.'
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DAN WOOTTON: But I have obtained a potentially significant email sent to McCall and Julian Bellamy, the managing director of ITV Studios, which makes This Morning, on February 10, 2020.
Written by a former This Morning staff member who had since left the show, it demanded an investigation into what they feared was an abuse of power by Schofield, suggesting at the very least he should be suspended from the programme while the widespread allegations were looked into.
I have agreed not to name the staff member, but can reveal they had no personal animosity towards Phillip, who was not involved in their decision to leave.
The email to McCall and Bellamy read in part: 'With the current rumours and accusations swirling around about Phillip Schofield…why is he still on our screens? Why have ITV not suspended him pending an internal inquiry?
'I would have thought in this day and age that a mainstream broadcaster such as ITV ought to be seen to be doing all it can to deal with issues like this, find out where the truth lies and, in the meantime, suspend those who the rumours concern?'
In addition, the ex-This Morning staff member provided McCall and Bellamy with a link to a YouTube video, which now has nearly two million views, detailing the history of the relationship between Schofield and his young colleague, including purported social media contact between the pair and a number of photographs of them together socially and at work at ITV.
The former staff member concluded the email: 'Come on ITV – it's time to take action and do the responsible thing.'
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TV bosses face further questions about what they knew of Phillip Schofield’s affair with a This Morning colleague after claims emerged that the younger lover received a financial settlement from the broadcaster.
The Daily Mail has been told that he was given a payment following the end of the on-off relationship, which Schofield described as ‘unwise but not illegal’.
ITV have repeatedly declined to comment on the alleged pay-off or deny it. There were no comments from a representative of the presenter, who quit the channel on Friday after he revealed to the Daily Mail that he had lied about the affair to our sister paper, The Mail on Sunday.
But a source claims that the money was handed to the man, who, after he declared his love for Schofield at an awards ceremony in January 2020, was shunted to another of the network’s daytime programmes.
Insiders at ITV say that bosses at some level must have known about any payment as someone senior would have been required to sign it off.
Neither McCall or Bellamy had the courtesy to respond to the email, prompting the ex-staffer to send multiple further messages, which were also ignored.