PHILLIP Schofield’s rarely-seen daughter Molly has hit back at cruel trolls after he made his TV return in Cast Away.
The shamed TV presenter, 62, made his comeback to screens on Monday night for Cast Away, a new documentary series where he’s stranded on a desert island for 10 days.
Phil was joined by wife Steph, Molly and his other daughter Ruby on the show[/caption]
Former This Morning host Phil shares daughters Molly and Ruby with wife Stephanie Lowe, and the three women appeared on the show for a goodbye dinner before he headed off.
Phil and Steph split after he came out as gay in 2020. He later confessed to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a much younger male colleague.
After the first episode of Cast Away aired last night, Molly was forced to take to social media to slam cruel trolls.
She reposted a comment which read: “So if she’s so proud of him why does she use her mother’s name and go by Molly Lowe?
“That’s a recent change. She was always Schofield and no doubt happy to use it…”
But Molly fired back: “I’m Molly Schofield… and proud to be.” She added a middle finger emoji to drive her point home.
During the three-episode series, which continues tonight and tomorrow night, Phil blames his brother for being “fired” from his lucrative This Morning and Dancing on Ice gigs.
In April 2023, Timothy Schofield was convicted of 11 sexual offences involving a child – including emotionally blackmailing a child into sex acts.
Phillip believes the discovery of Timothy’s crimes caused ITV to edge him out before firing him.
However, according to The Mirror, ITV insiders are highly refuting the claims, saying: “Phillip’s new comments are simply untrue, he is lying again.
Instead, they claim he quit when the fallout of the conviction – combined with his “unwise but not illegal” affair with a 19-year-old runner on This Morning – became too much.
‘We stood by him through his brother’s court case and he then stepped away when things became too much,” the source said.
“He then admitted himself he had been lying about an affair and he resigned from ITV altogether.
“We didn’t sack him, he lied to us and then he resigned, there is not much else to say and we as a network just want to move on.”
Cast Away verdict
By Rod McPhee
OVER three nights – and three hour-long episodes – Phillip Schofield has been bearing his soul in new Channel 5 show Cast Away.
And it’s basically a chance for the former This Morning host to explain the circumstances that saw him leave the show last year.
To put it mildly, he left under something of a cloud, admitting he’d had a fling with a much younger runner on the programme. But in the C5 show he presents his own versions of events – one which is at odds with the narrative that emerged at the time.
He was portrayed as a man who’d had an “unwise” affair, who’d resigned as a result and had let many of his colleagues down.
But in Cast Away Phillip insists he was fired by ITV and not for the affair, but because of the bad publicity that surrounded the crimes of his paedophile brother. He summed it up best when he claimed he’d been “pushed under a bus.”
After watching Cast Away what you’re left with is something rather confusing, however.
Did Phillip think he’d done something wrong by having the fling with the runner, or not? For example, he said he wouldn’t have been slammed for it quite so much if it were a heterosexual fling.
He said he: “would have received a pat on the back for having an affair with a woman.” This infers that the only thing wrong with it was that it was a same sex fling. So why does he also say: “I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake.”
The answer, I suspect, is that the whole affair was a murky business. There were so many blurred lines around appropriateness, professionalism and honesty.
The only firm conclusion you can draw from the show is that Phillip himself isn’t ENTIRELY sure to what extent He was guilty of wrongdoing.
Amid the confusion, what will the viewing public think? I suspect that this will leave those who disliked Phillip to feel even more suspicious of him.
Those who backed him, will feel reassured too. But those who still aren’t sure what to think will be none-the-wiser – and I’m not sure if that’s what Phillip would have wanted.
