"What transpired took us for fools"

Presenter Eamonn Holmes has accused Phillip Schofield of ‘deceiving and lying to’ him and his wife Ruth Langsford about his affair with a young colleague on This Morning. On Friday evening, Schofield released a statement to the Daily Mail in which he revealed he lied about having a relationship with his colleague while married to his then-wife Stephanie. In the statement, he said: “I am making this statement via the Daily Mail to whom I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story which they wanted to write about me a few days ago. “The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.” Following the revelation, Holmes tweeted that his former colleague had “finally been caught out” but added that he was “not the only guilty party.” The GB News presenter claims “4 high members of ITV management knew what sort of man he was.” This prompted several people to ask Holmes how much he knew about Schofield’s affair, with one person sharing a clip of him and wife Ruth Langsford hugging Schofield and Holly Willoughby after the 61-year-old had come out as gay. They labelled Holmes a “hypocrite.”

As for Eamonn Holmes being outraged, he's a hypocrite!! pic.twitter.com/m6ReNbXdtJ

— ElyzabethSB (@ElyzabethSB) May 26, 2023

Replying to the clip, he said: “Ruth and I [were] deceived and lied to. One day I will tell the story. “We had no issue with him being Gay, only support. What transpired took us for fools. “The man told us complete lies and we unfortunately believed him.” Following Schofield’s admission of the affair, many have wondered how much senior bosses and executives at ITV and This Morning knew. One source has suggested that ‘very senior heads could roll’ as a result, and that the very future of This Morning could be at risk. Last weekend, Schofield suddenly stepped down from his role as presenter on This Morning after 21 years. This followed reports of a breakdown in his relationship with co-host Holly Willoughby.

Dermot and Alison Hammond spent just 35 seconds talking about Phil and Holly before moving onto other features coming up on #ThisMorning.

— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 22, 2023

Cover presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary paid tribute to Schofield at the start of Monday’s programme. Schofield had presented This Morning show since 2002, with Willoughby joining him as a co-presenter in 2009. Willoughby is currently on holiday but set to return to the show on Monday 5 June. Earlier this year, his brother Timothy Schofield was jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of sexually abusing a boy.

This article originally appeared on Joe.co.uk

Related links:

Phillip Schofield admits he had an affair with a younger man while married

“This was a lie”: Holly Willoughby breaks her silence on Philip Schofield’s affair admission

Phillip Schofield needs to 'lay low and move out of the limelight'