PHILLIP Schofield has revealed his Twitter exchanges with a teenager years before he joined This Morning as a runner and became his lover.
Schofield, 61 ,- who was last week axed from This Morning – sensationally left the show before revealing he had an affair with a much-younger male employee.
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Schofield, who was married at the time, branded the relationship “unwise but not illegal” amid the ongoing This Morning furore.
His admission catapulted the show into chaos – and has left his 40-year career in tatters.
And he has now spoken of his interactions with the former runner when he was just a teen.
Schofield is at lengths to point out the chronology of events, and make clear the pair were not in touch romantically or inappropriately after they first communicated when the boy was just 15.
The former Dancing On Ice presenter says he followed the teenager back on Twitter at the behest of a mutual friend, he says.
The star told the BBC he only offered occasional career advice as he wanted to break into TV, before helping him land him work experience on This Morning.
He and the young man began communicating on Twitter after they followed each other after an event.
The presenter characterised their communication as a “completely innocent backwards-and-forwards over a period of time, about a job, about careers”.
“What’s wrong with that?” he asked.
“What’s wrong with talking to someone no matter what age they are, does that mean if you’re following anyone on Twitter that you don’t give advice?”
However, he insists that he did not get him a job.
Schofield added: “He got the job on his own merits and started working on the show.”
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According to Schofield, the first romantic encounter between him and the man took place in his ITV dressing room and was “consensual”.
Schofield maintains that his colleague was 20 years old when he first had any kind of sexual contact with him.
Although the former TV star said he was ashamed, he insisted he did not groom the runner.
Schofield claims he had worked with the colleague for a short period and had become friends.
And he said that he was “struggling with his sexuality” at the time.
In an interview with The Sun he said: “Then one day something happened that just changed it. That is the moment I look back on, and regret so deeply.
“It was in my dressing room in 2017, it was a consensual moment, it was mutual.
“It was not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates.
“I was really struggling with my sexuality at that time in the build up to what happened.
“But over a period of time it happened maybe five or six times.
“You look at yourself. I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career.
“I know I did that. And there is no excuse. I won’t put forward an excuse. No one did anything wrong apart from me.”
Yesterday, it emerged that ITV boss Carolyn McCall has been called to face MPs amid the ongoing This Morning furore.
She has been called to give evidence to a parliamentary committee to answer questions about the broadcaster’s approach to safeguarding and complaint-handling following Phillip’s resignation.
The chief executive will face questions from MPs on the This Morning row at the Culture, Media and Sport committee on June 14.
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