Dan Wootton mocks Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield
Dan Wootton claims ITV bosses “dismissed” Phillip Schofield’s affair in 2019 after he urged them to investigate it. He went on to allege bosses put the affair down to “salacious gossip”.
During his latest Daily Mail column, Dan recalled the moment he received a “critical” phone call following his departure from ITV.
The GB News host had been a staple on Lorraine for a decade giving viewers the latest entertainment news.
He said his “departure from the channel was complicated”, claiming the broadcaster’s top executives gave him two conditions about renewing his contract.
He alleged: “First: Any form of reporting on the then developing Phillip Schofield scandal will get you immediately taken off air (he’d already tried to have me sacked multiple times, by this point).”
Dan claimed the second condition would he had to “stop any negative commentary about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”.
After walking away from his job at ITV, Dan claimed: “At that time, there was an open revolt amongst ITV Daytime talent and producers that Schofield’s young male colleague and lover, who was 34 years his junior, had been moved from This Morning after their relationship soured to work on Loose Women.”
He went on: “I spoke to a number of the Loose Women presenters personally who were livid and worried that they were having to deal with the very real fallout of Phillip’s mixed-up professional and personal life.”
Dan claimed a number of the Loose Women presenters were worried about having to deal with the fall-out and one also made a formal complaint to management about Phillip.
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He added: “Another told me: ‘We shouldn’t be having to deal with Phillip’s messed up situation. We love (the young worker) but he’s very troubled now. What if he can’t cope?'”
The former ITV presenter also claimed to have spoken to eight household names at ITV, who had also raised concerns about Phillip’s “toxic behaviour”.
After pushing ITV bosses to investigate the claims made about Phillip, Dan said it was clear “the broadcaster had no intention of doing so”.
He shared: “Indeed, an ITV spokeswoman ended up dismissing my 2019 story, saying: ‘It’s deeply disappointing and unfair for Phillip to be the target of this sort of malicious gossip.
“‘Phillip is a much-respected broadcaster and colleague and this is absolutely not a description of This Morning that we recognise.'”
On Friday, Phillip released a lengthy statement admitting he’d had an affair with a younger male colleague on This Morning.
ITV has since released a statement insisting they knew nothing about the affair and that at the time, it was investigated.
An ITV Spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “Further to our statement last night, ITV can confirm that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in early 2020 ITV investigated.
“Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours as did Phillip’s then agency YMU.
“In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on This Morning and were not provided with, and did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.
“Phillip’s statement yesterday reveals that he lied to people at ITV, from senior management to fellow presenters, to YMU, to the media and to others over this relationship.”
In a previous statement, a spokesperson stated: “We are deeply disappointed by the admissions of deceit made tonight by Phillip Schofield.
“he relationships we have with those we work with are based on trust. Philip made assurances to us which he now acknowledges were untrue and we feel badly let down.
“We accept his resignation from ITV and therefore can confirm that he will not be appearing on ITV as had previously been stated.”
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