Phillip Schofield has revealed how a stranger’s simple act of kindness helped lift his spirits while he battled suicidal thoughts.
The disgraced presenter, 62, is making his TV comeback on Channel 5’s Cast Away, which sees him fend for himself for 10 days on a remote island paradise, located off the coast of Madagascar.
It is his first TV appearance since he quit ITV‘s This Morning 16 months ago after admitting to having lied about an ‘unwise, but not illegal’ affair with a much younger male colleague.
In the upcoming show, Phillip speaks out about suffering suicidal thoughts in the aftermath and revealed how a chance encounter with a stranger helped him.
He explained that he had locked himself away at home while he struggled with his mental health but once his mum grew sick he was forced to leave and visit her at hospital in Cornwall.
Phillip Schofield revealed on Channel 5’s Cast Away how a stranger’s simple act of kindness helped lift his spirits while he battled suicidal thoughts
Schofield recalled: ‘I walked into the reception of the hospital and a big guy with a big red face and big arms and tattoos and I walked into reception trying to find where the intensive care unit was.
‘This guy said “Schofield” and I said “yeah” and I thought “oh s**t” and he said “can I give you a hug mate?” and I said “actually do you know you can” and he gave me a massive, massive hug and said “they’re all s***s mate they’re all s***s.”‘
Speaking about the decline in his mental health, he explained: ‘A year ago I got so close. I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready…
‘Molly and Ruby [were] 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?”
‘And that was just enough, just enough to take a step back from the edge.
‘I could have been hospitalised. I had the option to be. hospitalised but then I thought that is going to get out. So I just raced back to the family home and shut the gates and I was in there.’
Ultimately, Schofield had to leave the house to visit his mother and was pleased with the warm reception he received from the stranger.
Schofield has a close relationship with his beloved mother Pat, 87.
The disgraced presenter, 62, is making his TV comeback on Channel 5’s Cast Away, which sees him fend for himself for 10 days on a remote island paradise
Schofield had locked himself away at home while he struggled with his mental health but once his mum Pat (pictured) grew sick he was forced to leave and visit her at hospital in Cornwall
He was also close with his father Brian, who died in 2008 from a heart attack (pictured) and revealed he is glad his father wasn’t alive to witness his downfall
He was also close with his father Brian, who died in 2008 from a heart attack.
Speaking about his father on the show, Schofield mused: My dad was a brilliantly, wonderfully kind man. I think he’d burst out laughing [seeing him on the island]…
‘He was so kind and so caring and so loving and so generous. My dad was my hero.
‘A lot’s changed since then. There’s a lot I’m glad he didn’t see.’
A new teaser for the show, showed Schofield stepping off a boat and onto his new ‘home’ for the next week and a half, he wailed: ‘I’ll be entirely alone for 10 long days and nine solitary nights. God help me’.
Waving to the crew he shouts: ‘Thank you, see you in 10 days’, before musing: ‘That is the wildest feeling, oh my. S**t just got real.’
Schofield’s new show Cast Away will air across three nights from Monday, September 30 to Wednesday, October 2, in three 60 minute installments.
Schofield was left wailing in fear when he was dropped off on a desert island for his upcoming Channel 5 survival show Cast Away
The disgraced presenter, 62, looked agitated as he was seen waving goodbye to the crew for the new three-part series which sees him fend for himself for 10 days on a remote island
Filmed stepping off a boat and onto his new ‘home’ for the next week and a half, he says: ‘I’ll be entirely alone for 10 long days and nine solitary nights. God help me’
In another clip from the show he appeared to put further strain on his relationship with his former co-presenter and best friend Holly Willoughby after ranting about ‘three sh**s of showbiz’ on his new desert island documentary.
In a rant he takes aim at those ‘who betrayed him’ 16 months ago when he quit ITV‘s This Morning after admitting to having lied about an ‘unwise, but not illegal’ affair with a much younger male colleague.
Schofield appears to blame his dramatic fall from grace on a trio of his former ITV colleagues, saying: ‘I think there are only three s**ts [of showbiz].’
He pointed out that one was a ‘coward who never stepped up in Queuegate,’ while another ‘is a coward because they never stepped up when I was being battered’.
In a clip obtained by The Sun, Schofield claims the third ‘is just brand-orientated’, adding: ‘Not what you expect, not what you think you’re going to get.’
While Schofield does not name any individuals, speculation has mounted that he could be taking aim at Willoughby, who he doesn’t mention at all throughout the series.
Another is thought to be This Morning editor Martin Frizell – who Schofield seemingly blames for letting him take the fall over ‘Queugate’, when he and Willoughby were accused of skipping the queue to see the Queen’s lying in state.
Schofield, whose career was left in tatters after he admitted to lying about his affair in May last year, no longer follows Frizell on social media.
Schofield returns to TV in Channel 5 show Cast Away (pictured) just 16 months after he left ITV and This Morning, which he hosted for 21 years
Schofield is pictured on the This Morning sofa with his former best pal Holly Willoughby
Schofield no longer follows This Morning editor Martin Frizell (pictured together) on social media
ITV chief Dame Carolyn McCall was called to Parliament last June to face questions over safeguarding and complaint handling after Phillip Schofield’s exit from This Morning. She called his affair ‘deeply inappropriate’
Other targets could include ITV chief Dame Carolyn McCall, who labelled Schofield’s relationship with a younger staffer as ‘deeply inappropriate’.
Continuing to take aim at those who he believes wrong him, Schofield added of his formerly long-standing TV career: ‘They know how important that was to me.
‘They know when you throw someone under a bus, you’ve got to have a really bloody good reason to do it. Brand, ambition is not good enough’, reports The Sun.
He went on: ‘People can be fake. They can be so fake with you when it’s all going well, and suddenly utter, utter betrayal.
‘There are a lot of amazing people in morning television.’
Despite mentioning ITV Co-stars Ant, 48, and Dec, 49, as well as Joanna Lumley, 78, his former pal Willoughby isn’t mentioned at all throughout the episode.
In one outburst which will leave viewers wondering whether it is aimed at her, Schofield says: ‘When you throw someone under a bus, you’ve got to have a really bloody good reason to do it.
‘I got into telly because I love the nuts and bolts of telly, I never wanted to be famous. I’m not fussed about that.
‘I miss parts of it. I miss most of it, I’m honest. But there are bits that I really, really, really don’t miss. You learn a lot about people. I don’t miss that.’
The disgraced presenter revealed this week he was taking part in his own survival show just 16 months on from leaving This Morning.
Schofield is said to have turned down a selection of big money TV offers before choosing to sign up for Cast Away – which he believes will allow him to share his story in an ‘unedited and honest’ way.
Willoughby left This Morning in October 23 after presenting the show alongside Schofield for 14 years.
Sources at the time said she quit because the show ‘wasn’t the same’ after her co-host left but was finally ‘tipped over the edge’ by an alleged ‘kidnap and murder plot’, insiders have claimed.
Meanwhile, during the episode Schofield referred to ITV duo Ant and Dec as his ‘best mates’.
In May it was suggested Declan Donnelly had reportedly been trying to convince the former presenter to make a TV comeback, after the pair had a four-hour dinner together.
During the three-part programme, he takes aim at those ‘who betrayed him’ when he quit ITV ‘s This Morning
Various teaser clips have revealed some of the topics that Schofield will talk about ahead of his TV return
Joanna Lumley also featured, sending him a ‘good luck’ message.
The disgraced star will discuss his bitter parting of ways with the channel while fending for himself for 10 days on a remote island paradise, located off the coast of Madagascar
It comes after insiders revealed how ITV bosses are said to be furious at Schofield for claiming he would have been treated differently if he had had an affair with a woman rather than a man.
The disgraced presenter said he would have got a ‘pat on the back’ it wasn’t a homosexual relationship.
However, ITV insiders say is ‘totally untrue’ to suggest he would have been treated differently because it was a gay romance.
During the show, Schofield refers to himself as the ‘shamed, disgraced Philip Schofield, who had an affair’.
He said: ‘Strangely, I think another TV presenter or two might have done exactly the same thing. Difference is heterosexual. It’s not an unusual thing in the gay world for there to be a difference in age groups.’
‘That’s not that unusual in the straight world, but if that had been the case with me and it had been a woman. Pat on the back. Well done, mate.’
Schofield said that he ‘has regrets’ and acknowledges he ‘got something wrong’ and ‘hurt the people’ around him.
‘I don’t know what price you’re supposed to pay and whether the price you’re paying is necessarily proportionate,’ he adds.
Hitting back, a source at the channel said: ‘It’s a stupid thing for Phil to say, and it is just not true. Phil lied to his colleagues, his bosses and his friends about it, it wouldn’t have mattered if it was a woman or a man.’
They add that Schofield is unlikely to work with the channel again despite his hints that he had been approached to appear on their reality show, I’m A Celeb. One source said: ‘He lied to us, it would be really, really difficult.’
In the second episode of Cast Away, another clip shows Schofield declaring that he ‘doesn’t care anymore’.
Sitting around a campfire, he says: ‘I’ll be slammed for this, ‘Phillip Schofield mad rant [shakes his head]’. But the thing is, I don’t care anymore. I don’t care. This is me having my say as I bow out.’
He describes claims of toxicity on the ITV show as ‘utter b****cks’.
Schofield called out ‘three s***s’ of showbiz during a rant on his new Cast Away series
‘I found out after I left that there are a few people in there that might be a little bit toxic,’ he added.
‘I never saw it … when (you’re) on the telly, you don’t see stuff like that, you’re protected from it, people don’t tell you, so I had no clue.’
Schofield says the ‘toxicity tank is nearly empty’ after spending ‘so much self-analysis over the past few years. I’ve sort of analysed my head and myself and analysed everything’.
When Schofield left This Morning, she said: ‘It’s been over 13 great years presenting This Morning with Phil and I want to take this opportunity to thank him for all of his knowledge, his experience and his humour. The sofa won’t feel the same without him.’
Cast Away will air at 9pm on Monday on Channel 5
