According to reports, ITV’s inquiry into the circumstances behind Phillip Schofield’s departure may take months to complete.
Last month, the broadcaster stated that it had commissioned a barrister to conduct an external investigation into the circumstances behind his resignation, with the results to be made public.
The investigation was launched when Phillip, 61, acknowledged on This Morning to lying about having an affair with a considerably younger male colleague.
According to a source, the probe will last 12 weeks and will include interviews with Phillip and the runner, as well as Holly Willoughby, Dermot O’Leary, and Alison Hammond from This Morning.
They claim that the findings will not be disclosed until the winter.
‘The inquiry will speak to all those involved. It will focus on what happened before and after he was first given work experience on the set of This Morning. And it will also seek to establish who knew what and when,’ the insider told The Sun.
‘As well as speaking to current staff it will also invite former employees to come forward with information.’
Dame Carolyn McCall, the head of ITV, faced questions from MPs earlier this month concerning Phillip’s departure, the working atmosphere on This Morning and other programmes, as well as ITV’s use of non-disclosure agreements and whistleblowing policies.
During the committee, Dame Carolyn said ITV worked ‘very, very hard for many months’ to ask the two men involved, as well as those in production, ‘if they knew something was going on’.
‘It was repeatedly denied by both individuals.’
In an earlier statement, ITV stated that a relationship between Schofield and the former This Morning colleague was probed in early 2020, but both parties ‘categorically and again’ refuted the accusations.
Furthermore, ITV stated that it spoke with “a number of persons” who worked on This Morning but was “not furnished with, and did not locate, any proof of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.”
In an interview with The Sun, Phillip said he felt suicidal amid the fallout after confessing to the deceit.
‘I am in a very bad way,’ he said. ‘Mentally, utterly, utterly broken.’
He went on to say that he wasn’t sleeping or eating, and that his mind was “in continual, complete upheaval.”
The host also voiced his heartbreak at the prospect of never working on television again, which he referred to as his “safe space.”
Source My Celebrity Life.
