In a further twist his agents YMU Group, who had represented him for 35 years, said they were parting ways, stressing that “honesty and integrity are core values” and that “talent management is a relationship based entirely on trust”.
Schofield admitted he had lied to ITV when denying the relationship to his co-worker and apologised for “having been unfaithful to my wife”.
He issued the statement after being confronted by the Daily Mail. He had previously denied the relationship when the newspaper’s sister publication the Mail on Sunday had approached him for comment.
In his statement, Schofield said: “The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.”
‘Nobody forced me out’
He went on: “When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody ‘forced’ me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me.
“In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.
“But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.
“I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.”