Phillip Schofield BBC interview: Presenter apologises and says career is over - BBC News

you've had quite the week how are you um I think I understand how Caroline Flack felt last week if my daughters hadn't been there I wouldn't be here and they've guarded me um I won't let me out of their site it's like a weird numbness I know that's a selfish point of view but you've come to a point where you just think how much are you supposed to take if all of those people that write all of that stuff do they ever think that there's actually a person at the other end and so here I am um yeah are you feeling okay to do this are you feeling strong enough to do this interview yeah I have to why why do you want to do this interview because there is an innocent person here who didn't do anything wrong who is vulnerable and probably feels like I do and I just have to say stop with him okay with me but stop with him leave him alone now you mentioned this young man and at the center of recent events is a young man who together with many others in the media we're not going to name you know under articulate of the Human Rights Act he has a right to privacy and he's not here today to give his own account of events when did you last speak to him um as I engaged the lawyer for him so he needed independent support and so that was the last time is that a few weeks ago now How concerned are you about his welfare right now massively massively where did you first meet this young man in question what were the circumstances I was invited by a friend of mine to go to open a drama school and that's where the picture was taken um whether it was immediately or sometime after he said will you um will you follow him on Twitter because he's a he's a fan so I said yeah sure no problem which I did and he was 15 at the time yeah and this is over but I follow I follow eleven thousand three hundred people and in all the time I've been on Twitter there has never been any whiff of impropriety and how often were you in touch with him hardly hardly at all he then said that he was interested in television okay good luck good luck anything I can do to help probably that's what I normally say um and that was a bit for a while and then he asked if he could visit the studios work experience type of thing I said well you come down and have a look for sure which he did how old was he when he first said to you I'm interested in television was he 18 by that point 9 19 by then when you look back now if you were to look back at those messages now is there any sense in which you were flirting with him no I mean I I've been 41 years in television you know nothing like this before you know no no accusations I mean this is this is all you know accusations and then when you met him in person was there a little moment of sexual attraction then even absolutely not okay so to be absolutely clear how old was this young man when you first had any kind of sexual contact with him 20. 20. is that what I mean this is obviously the number of it and for the recorder to put speculation to rest let me ask you did you have any kind of sexual relationship or sex with him when he was underage no God no that I think that is a you know in my statement it says you know consensual relationship fully legal I mean that was approved by both sides you know that's no no he'd been working at the show for a few months um and and we become mates we were mates and you know we had around the studios you hang out together you know chat to each other that sort of stuff and then my dressing room one day something happened um which you know obviously I will regret forever for him and for me mostly him but it that happened maybe four or five times over the next few months and I know it's Unforgivable [Music] um but we weren't boyfriends we weren't in a relationship I was really in a mess with my own sexuality at the time and it just happened how old was he at this stage 20 21. who knew on the team nobody to my knowledge I mean somebody has to know something for there to be a rumor later on I I didn't believe that anybody knew and did you ever tell holly Willoughby no God no that's a bit a bigger question because we we have our makeup room was like a sanctuary um has always been a sanctuary so you tell everything in that room Holly knows everything about me I know everything about Holly Holly did not know nobody knew and you never you never told her no I didn't tell anybody I mean the reason this matters is because it is about potential abuse of power and it is I understand that and that is a very very valid question to put to me and people would say the circumstances are as follows here you met someone who's a child you weren't a position of power over them you used your power eventually to give them something they craved which is a shot at a job in the media who nurtured a relationship and then that relationship became sexual and they might ask what's the difference between that and Grooming well I would say that the initial list of things was not not right anyway tell me why because it was a totally innocent picture a totally innocent Twitter follow of which I follow 11 400 people and and then it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job about careers what's wrong with talking to someone no matter you know what age they are does that mean that if you know if you are if you're following anyone on Twitter that you absolutely don't talk to anybody else or you don't give advice so I I disagree with the summation that you just gave because that does paint a very grave picture do you know if he has signed an NDA a non-disclosure agreement preventing him from speaking no you don't know if he has no did I make him sign an NDA no absolutely not but there's a question whether or not he was as it were paid off and in effect if he was paid off was he paid for his silence no God no no so is he free to speak if he wants to yeah yes I mean what he wants is for all of this to go away he wants a quiet life and just on a couple of points of information just because you are currently on an ongoing basis you're paying for his legal advice and support has there ever been or is there an injunction or any sort of NDA preventing media coverage of your relationship with him no why is all this coming out now Philip what was the Catalyst what changed it got too big the LIE got too big for both of us it just got enormous it was growing and growing and growing and it it crossed over from the from online to uh mainstream news itv's position is that they they've already put out one statement about all this um they say they investigate allegations of an improper relationship and they were told by both you and the young man that there was no relationship in retrospect was that investigation a sham because it clearly didn't get to the truth did it I think if you have two people who are lying then what what can you do but what did that investigation amount to him was it sort of was it just a phone call to you and a phone call to the young man was it sort of a proper sort of independent I think he was asked he was asked quite a bit I was asked a couple of times and so you know it's um and it wasn't formal is this the tip of the iceberg are there more allegations of Revelations that come or or as far as you're concerned my biggest sorriest Secret when did you last speak to Holly Willoughby I um what's after on the day that I put the statement up and I said to her I know you can't reply you're probably not allowed to but please know that I am so desperately desperately sorry did you reply no

Channel: BBC News

Views: 363,479

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news, world news, breaking news, us news, world

Id: TpqYETAsSqc

Length: 10min 41sec (641 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2023