Schofield considered taking his own life

Schofield ‘knows how Caroline Flack felt’ as he says his daughters saved him from taking his life

Phillip Schofield has said he contemplated suicide and owed his life to his daughters as he asked his critics: “Do you want me to die?” The former

This Morning presenter said he had “lost everything” because of his affair with a much younger male former colleague. Referring to fellow presenter Caroline Flack, who took her own life in 2020, he said: “I think I understand how Caroline Flack felt. Last week, if my daughters hadn’t been there, then I wouldn’t be here.”

PHILLIP SCHOFIELD has said he contemplated suicide and owed his life to his daughters guarding him as he asked his critics: “Do you want me to die?”

The former This Morning presenter said he had “lost everything” because of his affair with a much younger male former colleague and had turned to Southern Comfort whiskey and vaping.

Referring to fellow television presenter Caroline Flack, who took her own life in 2020, he said: “I think I understand how Caroline Flack felt. Last week, if my daughters hadn’t been there, then I wouldn’t be here.”

He also said his former co-presenter

Holly Willoughby had stopped responding to him, and insisted that she knew nothing about his relationship with the runner on the show.

It came as MPs revealed they want to ask Dame Carolyn McCall, the ITV chief executive, whether Schofield’s former lover had been given a payout and whether he had been asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Schofield, 61, gave interviews to the BBC’s Amol Rajan and to The Sun in which he denied grooming his former lover, who was 15 when they first met on a visit Schofield made to his school.

He said the boy had asked him to follow him on Twitter “as he was a fan” and over the next few years they had occasionally messaged each other.

He later got a job on This Morning “on merit”, Schofield said, before their affair started when the runner was 20.

It was in 2017, he said, adding: “In my dressing room one day, something happened, which obviously I will regret forever, for him and for me — mostly him… I kissed someone in the workplace, which led on to a little bit more.”

Asked if there had been sexual contact when the runner was underage, he replied: “No, God no.”

He told The Sun that since admitting to the affair, which he previously denied to ITV, last month and resigning, “I am not sleeping, I am not eating.”

Schofield, who is still married, had to tell his estranged wife Stephanie Lowe and their two daughters the truth about his affair before he went public. He said his daughters had been “brilliant” and credited them with saving his life.

“You come to a point where you think, how much are you supposed to take?” He went on: “Do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am.”

He revealed to The Sun he was afraid to leave the house following the revelation of the affair. He said: “I do not know a time I will be able to walk out of the door. I don’t have any spirit. My friends tell me, ‘It will get better’. It won’t. Not now. Not this one.”

He told the BBC: “I have brought myself down. I am done. I have to talk about television in the past tense.”

The last contact he had with Wil

‘In my dressing room one day something happened, which obviously I will regret forever, for him and for me’

loughby was when he texted her to apologise after making his public admission. She did not reply.

Schofield has been criticised for comparing himself to Flack, with one friend of the late presenter telling the

Daily Mail: “It is unbelievable that Phil would do this. What a low blow from him.”

Her mother, Christine Flack, told BBC Newsnight: “He knew Caroline, and when she died he was very upset.” She added: “Don’t do anything silly. You’ve got your daughters, you’ve got your friends.”

Dame Carolyn said in a letter to Parliament’s culture, media and sport committee that Schofield’s former lover had left the channel in 2021 and that he had been supported because of “social media scrutiny” of him.

Rupert Everett, the openly gay actor, last night said coverage of Schofield’s affair was “homophobic” and “outrageous”, and a “moment of insanity”.