Phillip Schofield has announced he will return to television – 16 months after his departure from ITV’s This Morning.
The TV star will appear on a Channel 5 special called Cast Away.
The three-part series will see the former presenter marooned on a tropical island off the coast of Madagascar.
In a post on Instagram, he said: “Now you know how I spent my Summer! Alone for 10 days, no food, no water, no crew.
“My story of survival, both on a desert island and off it.”
Phillip Schofield: Timeline of ITV departure
Schofield, 62, resigned from ITV last May after he admitted to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague.
He said at the time he had “lost everything” after admitting to the affair, and that the fallout had had a “catastrophic effect” on his mind.
Over the weekend, Channel 5 posted a short clip of an unidentified star walking across a remote beach, as it teased its “brand new” desert island programme on social media.
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After being revealed as the celebrity, Schofield said: “This is most definitely a first for me and the only thing I felt compelled to do. It appealed to me on so many levels.
“I’ve recently had a lot of time to think about my life, what went right and what went wrong, but I’ve always had the safe arms of friends and family wrapped around me. This time it’s just me.”
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The series will air across three nights, from Monday until Wednesday.
An external review found that ITV made “considerable efforts” to find out the truth about an alleged relationship between Schofield and a runner on This Morning in 2019 but was “unable to uncover the relevant evidence” until the presenter’s own admission.
Carried out by Jane Mulcahy KC, Schofield “reluctantly declined” to take part because of “the risk to his health”.
Source Agencies
