Alison Hammond breaks down in tears on This Morning over Phillip Schofield: ‘What he’s done is wrong’
Alison Hammond breaks down in tears on This Morning over Phillip Schofield (This Morning and Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)
Presenter Alison Hammond broke down in tears on This Morning on Friday (2 June) over Phillip Schofield, who quit the show after admitting he had lied about a relationship with a younger colleague.
Schofield quit This Morning and ITV over his affair with a colleague who was a teenager when they first met. He has described the relationship as “unwise, but not illegal”.
On Friday (2 June), Schofield have his first interviews since stepping down, in which he insisted that he was not a “groomer”.
For the first time, This Morning discussed the controversy on Friday (2 June), with Alison Hammond, who has been presenting in Schofield’s absence, becoming emotional.
Speaking on Friday, Hammond said: “I’m finding it really painful, I loved Phillip Schofield.
‘It’s weird because I still love Phillip Schofield, however, what he’s done is wrong. He’s admitted it, he’s said sorry.
“As a family, we’re all really struggling to process everything, I never know what to say.
“I remember what my mom said, my mom always said: ‘Sse your Bible as your satnav in life, Al. In the Bible it says: ‘He without sin, casts the first stone,’ and I don’t want to say anything bad because I’m in conflict.”
In a bombshell interview with the BBC, Phillip Schofield claimed that while he had met his younger colleague when he was 15 years old, a “consensual” sexual relationship had only started after he turned 20.
“I am not a groomer,” the former presenter said.
Schofield added that he would not name the man he had a relationship with, who he said had done “nothing wrong”, and urged people to “leave him alone”.
ITV will now start an external investigation into its handling of the relationship between Schofield and the colleague.
The broadcaster said it investigated rumours internally in 2020, but that both Schofield and the young man denied them.
The channel’s chief executive, Dame Carolyn McCall, said: “Given Phillip’s admission of the extent of his deception, the work will extend to cover any related issues that may emerge. This work will be carried out as quickly as possible and we will be happy to share the outcome.
“As you would expect, we take the matter extremely seriously and have reviewed our own records over the weekend.”
Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield’s long-time co-presenter, added that she had “taken time to process” the news, and that she was “hurt” that Schofield had lied to her about the affair.
