The disgraced presenter Phillip Schofield quit the channel last year after he admitted to having a relationship with a much younger male colleague on This Morning – and later lying about it – he said things became so dark that he planned to take his own life.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?
In his much criticised television comeback on Channel 5 programme Cast Away he tells how he had ‘everything in place’ for a suic!de attempt, but decided against it when his eldest daughter Molly persuaded him not to.
Speaking on the first episode of the three-part series which airs on Monday, the former This Morning host, 62, said: ‘In the last eighteen months, it got as dark as it is possible to get.
‘A year ago I got so, so close. I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready and it was Molly that was looking after me.’
He explained: ‘Molly and Ruby both looking after me at the time, and Molly said: “Do you imagine what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Can you imagine what would happen and can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?”
‘That was just enough, just enough to take a step back from the edge. I could have been hospitalised, I just raced to the family home and shut the gates and I was in there.’
TRIBUTES
He later pays tribute to his wife Stephanie Lowe, Molly, 31, and his youngest daughter Ruby, 28, saying: ‘Without them, I wouldn’t be here.’
Schofield’s return to television comes 16 months after he was forced to apologise to the Mail for lying about his affair with his former This Morning colleague.
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HIS REGRETS
He also lied to ITV and his former co-host Holly Willoughby about the romance and he hasn’t worked since.
But during the programme, he addresses the relationship, saying: ‘It’s like the biggest grenade going off in your life. You know you let people down, you know you’ve let yourself down.
‘It was an unwise and unprofessional thing to do. I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake, and I hurt the people around me.’
