Caroline Flack’s mum has spoken out against ITV following Phillip Schofield’s affair confession.
Christine Flack appears on Friday’s episode of Newsnight after Schofield, 61, admitted he feels ‘utterly broken’ after ‘losing everything’ because of his lies.
Last week, the former This Morning presenter – who has since resigned from ITV – confirmed that, after years of speculation, he did have an affair with a young male runner on the show.
He described the affair as ‘unwise’, given that it took place at work, while Schofield was married and before coming out as gay.
Schofield disappeared from public life after his bombshell admission, fleeing to be with his 87-year-old mother in Cornwall.
When he returned, he sat down with both The Sun and BBC to give his side of the story, rubbishing the idea that there was any abuse of power during his affair and explaining that he doesn’t see how his career will come back from this scandal.
He actually claimed to feel how former Love Island host Flack felt before she took her own life in 2020 while awaiting a court appearance for assault charges.
Of the onslaught of social media rumours being spread about him, he said the hatred is ‘relentless’.
‘How much do you want a man to take? Are you truly only happy when he’s dead?’, Schofield asked.
‘This is how Caroline Flack felt. And it didn’t stop.’
Her mum Christine has been incredibly vocal in terms of mental health and the media storm that led to her daughter’s suicide at the age of 40.
She’s now told Victoria Derbyshire that she doesn’t think ITV has made any improvements over the last three years, citing their handling of Schofield’s exit as an example.
‘They treat them as commodities,’ she said of the stars on the channel.
‘I know it’s a lovely job and they earn money, but also TV stations earn money from them
‘They’re not commodities, they’re people.’
Speaking in his tell-all interview, Schofield said his daughters ‘saved’ his life last week when they refused to let him out of their sight.
When asked how he is at the moment, wryly, he replied: ‘I am in a very bad way.’
‘Mentally, utterly, utterly broken.’
He stated: ‘And if it hadn’t been for my girls last week I wouldn’t be here.’
‘I know I deserve it but they said, “Don’t you dare, we’re here to look after you”. I feel embarrassed and ashamed.’
‘I have just felt like I was going lower and lower and lower and lower. And then, this bizarre, numbness washes over you, like a selfishness.’
He added that his grown-up daughters – Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27 – ‘won’t leave [him] alone’.
‘They were guarding me.’
