Former television star Phillip Schofield paid his younger lover and former colleague hundreds of thousands of dollars in a gag deal order which prevents him from discussing their relationship, the Mail on Sunday reported. Photo / Getty Images
Former television star Phillip Schofield paid his younger lover and former colleague hundreds of thousands of dollars in a gag deal order which prevents him from discussing their relationship, the Mail on Sunday reported. Photo / Getty Images
Phillip Schofield, a former New Zealand television star and the former presenter of ITV’s This Morning from 2002-2023, paid his former colleague and former lover hundreds of thousands of dollars in a gag order deal which means the man can never speak about their relationship together.
The man, who is 34 years younger than Schofield and worked alongside him at ITV in the United Kingdom, received the payment by signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), reported The Mail on Sunday.
A lawyer who represents Schofield has since confirmed that a deal was made and signed last year between the former TV presenter and his younger colleague. The two agreed upon a “mutual non-disclosure provision,” while the unnamed man was paid compensation for harm suffered during the affair.
Schofield first met the man when he was only 15. When he was 19, the presenter aided him in securing a highly sought-after job on This Morning as a runner.
The pair first began a romantic relationship when his younger colleague was 20. The man then moved to work on Loose Women, one of ITV’s daytime shows.
Schofield has largely been out of the public eye since he admitted to the affair in May last year. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)
The man eventually left ITV altogether after receiving a different payout.
“The young man has been fragile for some time. That is no secret,” said a source acquainted with the NDA to The Mail on Sunday.
“There was a payment made for various matters that followed Phillip’s decision to speak out about his relationship and as part of that, an NDA was arranged and signed.
“It means that Phil knows that his young ex will not ever be able to speak about their relationship so he can probably sleep a lot better at night now.
“He has lost a lot but imagine if the full details came out - it would be pretty cataclysmic for him.
“As for the young man, let’s hope that he can move on with his life now and rebuild it - but it isn’t easy.
“And it’s a bit rich to present an NDA after Phil had his say with the BBC last year.”
The man, now 27, organised legal representation from Mishcon de Reya, an elite London law firm, to negotiate the details surrounding the NDA. In ITV’s internal investigation, the man was simply referred to as Person X.
Phillip Schofield was married to Stephanie Lowe at the time of the affair. The couple share two daughters together and are still legally married but have separated. Photo / WireImage
Schofield stressed in the BBC interview that the young man had not been groomed by him after they met at a stage school when he was 15.
Admitting that he felt “utterly broken and ashamed,” he said: “We were mates, and then in my dressing room one day, something happened, which obviously I will regret forever, for him and for me - mostly him - but that happened maybe four or five times over the next few months.
“I know it’s unforgivable. But we weren’t boyfriends. We weren’t in a relationship. I was really in a mess with my own sexuality at the time, and it just happened.”
Schofield also said that the man was offered the runner role at This Morning “on his own merit... because he was very good at his job.
“Everybody loved him. He worked very hard,” he noted.
Schofield decided to be interviewed by the BBC after he revealed that he had been involved in the affair, which he did not disclose to his wife Stephanie Lowe.
Schofield detailed the relationship as “unwise but not illegal” in his groundbreaking statement to the Daily Mail. He went on to confess about covering it up to his colleagues, friends, family and the agents representing him at the management firm YMU.
“I am making this statement via the Daily Mail, to whom I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story which they wanted to write about me a few days ago,” he wrote in the statement.
“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.
“Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship.
“That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.”
The man chose not to comment on his NDA with Schofield or any details involved in it.
