Phillip Schofield is an English television presenter who fronted ITV’s This Morning from 2002 to 2023 and was, for two decades, one of the most familiar faces in British daytime television. He is searched now mainly for two reasons: people want a clear, factual account of why he left ITV in May 2023, and they want to know whether he has returned to television since. The short answer, as of October 2026, is that he stepped down from This Morning on 20 May 2023, resigned from ITV six days later after admitting — in his own public statement — an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male ITV colleague, and that his only television programme since then has been Channel 5’s three-part Phillip Schofield: Cast Away in September and October 2024. No new presenting role had been announced in reputable reporting as of October 2026.
This profile sets out that record in order — career first, then the events of 2020 and 2023 exactly as reported by the BBC, PA and other major UK outlets.
At a Glance
- Full name: Phillip Bryan Schofield
- Born: 1 April 1962, in Oldham, England — he is 64 as of October 2026
- Occupation: Television presenter
- Known for: Going Live! (1987–1993), This Morning (2002–2023), Dancing on Ice (2006–2014 and 2018–2023) and The Cube (2009–2015 and 2020–2021)
- Most recent programme: Phillip Schofield: Cast Away, Channel 5, 30 September to 2 October 2024
Who is Phillip Schofield?
Phillip Bryan Schofield was born on 1 April 1962 in Oldham and moved to Newquay, Cornwall, at eighteen months old, according to PA biographical reporting. He grew up in Cornwall, and at 19 he moved with his family to New Zealand, where he made his television debut in 1982 presenting the youth music programme Shazam!
That start also explains his dual British and New Zealand citizenship, reported in biographical profiles. By the time he left ITV in 2023, he had been presenting television, in one country or another, for more than 40 years.
How did Phillip Schofield become famous?
Phillip Schofield became famous in Britain as a children’s television presenter. After returning from New Zealand, he became the first in-vision continuity presenter for Children’s BBC on weekdays, working from the so-called “Broom Cupboard” from 1985 to 1987, alongside the puppet Gordon the Gopher. PA’s May 2023 career profile summarised that rise as going from “presenting with a puppet to ‘king of daytime TV'”.
What was Going Live! ?
From September 1987 to April 1993, Phillip Schofield presented Going Live!, the BBC’s Saturday morning children’s magazine programme. It ran for six series, made him a household name with younger viewers, and remains the programme most closely associated with the first phase of his career.
In the early 1990s he moved to ITV programmes including Schofield’s Quest and Talking Telephone Numbers (1994–1997). He also worked on stage, taking over the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the West End from Jason Donovan, and later playing the title role in Doctor Dolittle. Between 2001 and 2006 he presented BBC programmes including National Lottery: Winning Lines and Test the Nation, before signing an exclusive contract with ITV in July 2006.
What were Phillip Schofield’s biggest ITV programmes?
Phillip Schofield’s biggest ITV programme was This Morning. He joined the daytime show in 2002, initially presenting alongside Fern Britton. When Fern Britton left in 2009, Holly Willoughby — who had already presented Dancing on Ice with him since 2006 — became his co-presenter, and the two presented This Morning together for almost 14 years, until his departure in May 2023.
Alongside This Morning, his main ITV roles were:
- Dancing on Ice (2006–2014, and again from its return in 2018 until 2023) — co-presented first with Holly Willoughby and, during her break from the show, with Christine Bleakley.
- The Cube (2009–2015, and again in 2020–2021) — the prime-time game show in which contestants attempted challenges inside a transparent cube.
- All Star Mr & Mrs (2008–2016), 5 Gold Rings (2017–2020) and The British Soap Awards, which he presented annually from 2006 to 2022.
Taken together, those programmes explain why his departure in 2023 was treated as a major broadcasting story rather than a routine presenter change.
For another long-serving British television presenter profiled on this site, see our profile of Stacey Dooley.
When did Phillip Schofield come out?
Phillip Schofield came out as gay on 7 February 2020. He published a statement on Instagram and then gave an interview on This Morning on the same day. In that statement, as reported by the BBC and PA at the time, he said: “With the strength and support of my wife and my daughters, I have been coming to terms with the fact that I am gay.”
The date matters to the timeline: it came more than three years before his departure from ITV, it was handled at the time as a personal announcement, and he continued to present This Morning and Dancing on Ice afterwards. In the same statement he said he had been married to his wife Stephanie for nearly 27 years, and that the couple had two grown-up daughters. Phillip Schofield and Stephanie Lowe subsequently separated, as reported by the BBC and PA.
What happened with Phillip Schofield in May 2023?
What happened in May 2023 happened in two distinct steps, six days apart, and keeping them separate is essential to an accurate account.
Step one: stepping down from This Morning, 20 May 2023
Phillip Schofield presented This Morning for the last time on Thursday 18 May 2023. On Saturday 20 May 2023, ITV announced that he would step down from the programme with immediate effect, after more than 20 years on the show. In his statement at that point, reported by ITV and PA, he said: “I understand that ITV has decided the current situation can’t go on, and I want to do what I can to protect the show that I love.” At that stage ITV said he would continue to present peak-time programmes for the channel, including The British Soap Awards in June 2023 and a new prime-time series. The PA timeline later published as PA’s timeline of his ITV departure and return to TV records that sequence — last programme on 18 May, departure announced on 20 May — in full.
Step two: his admission and resignation from ITV, 26 May 2023
On Friday 26 May 2023, Phillip Schofield issued a further, longer statement, given to the Daily Mail and reported in full by the BBC, PA and other major outlets, in which he admitted an affair and resigned from ITV completely.
In his own words, as directly reported from that statement, he said: “I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.” He added: “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.”
He also said in the same statement, again as directly reported: “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.” He confirmed that the relationship had begun while he was still married, that he would step down from The British Soap Awards, his last public commitment, and that he was “resigning from ITV with immediate effect”. He asked for the other person’s privacy to be respected and did not name him. This article follows that position: the colleague is not named or described beyond what Phillip Schofield himself said in that statement, because no reputable outlet has established more than that on the record.
ITV accepted the resignation. In its response, reported by the BBC and Radio Times, an ITV spokesperson said the broadcaster was “deeply disappointed by the admissions of deceit made tonight by Phillip Schofield”, that Phillip had made assurances that he now acknowledged were untrue, and that ITV accepted his resignation and he would not be appearing on ITV as previously stated. His talent agency, YMU, which had represented him for 35 years, also ended its representation, saying new information it had learned contradicted what he had previously told the agency, as reported by PA. On 30 May 2023, according to the PA timeline, he was also removed as an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, the charity now known as The King’s Trust.
ITV also confirmed, on 27 May 2023, its own earlier position. As reported by PA and the BBC, ITV said that when rumours of a relationship first began to circulate in early 2020, it investigated, both parties were questioned and repeatedly denied the rumours, and ITV “did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour”. ITV then instructed Jane Mulcahy KC to carry out an external review. That review, published in December 2023 and reported by PA, found ITV had made “considerable efforts” to establish the truth in 2019 but had been “unable to uncover the relevant evidence” until his own admission in May 2023.
In a BBC interview broadcast on 2 June 2023, conducted by media editor Amol Rajan, Phillip Schofield said he had “lost everything” and described, in his own words, the effect the episode had had on his mind. Those are his own public statements about his health, reported by the BBC and PA, and they are the only health details given here.
What has Phillip Schofield done since leaving ITV?
Since leaving ITV, Phillip Schofield has kept a low public profile, and his only television programme has been Cast Away for Channel 5. PA reported that he returned to social media in May 2024, and that in July 2024 he made a rare public outing with his family.
What was Phillip Schofield: Cast Away?
Phillip Schofield: Cast Away was a three-part Channel 5 series broadcast over three consecutive nights from Monday 30 September to Wednesday 2 October 2024, at 9pm. As PA’s report of the Cast Away announcement set out when the programme was announced on 25 September 2024, the format left him alone for 10 days on an uninhabited tropical island off the coast of Madagascar, filming himself with hand-held cameras, with no crew with him on the island. Announcing it on Instagram, in a post reported by PA, he wrote: “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.”
Is Phillip Schofield back on TV in 2026?
No — not in any regular or newly announced presenting role, as of October 2026. Reporting at the time of Cast Away said he had suggested the series might be his last television appearance. Since Cast Away ended on 2 October 2024, no new programme presented by him had been announced in BBC, PA or other major-outlet reporting checked for this article, and he has not returned to This Morning or any other ITV programme. Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley were confirmed as the new permanent This Morning presenters in February 2024, as reported by the Royal Television Society. Claims about future projects or a planned comeback have appeared only in tabloid or aggregator coverage and are not treated as fact here.
Phillip Schofield’s personal life, as publicly reported
Phillip Schofield married Stephanie Lowe in March 1993, as reported by the BBC and PA. They met when he was working at Children’s BBC, where she was a production assistant, according to biographical reporting. They have two daughters, Molly and Ruby, whose support he referred to publicly in his February 2020 statement and again after May 2023.
After he came out in February 2020, Phillip Schofield and Stephanie Lowe separated. Reporting in June 2023, at the time of his BBC interview, said they remained legally married at that point. No reputable outlet has reported a divorce, and this article does not speculate about their private arrangements, their homes or their finances.
What is Phillip Schofield’s net worth?
There is no verified figure. No reputable source — not the BBC, PA, ITV or Channel 5 — publishes a verified net worth for Phillip Schofield. The figures in search results come only from celebrity net-worth aggregator websites, differ widely from one another, and are not based on any disclosed financial statement from him. This article therefore states no net-worth figure as fact.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Phillip Schofield?
Phillip Bryan Schofield, born 1 April 1962 in Oldham, is an English television presenter best known for Going Live! on the BBC and for presenting ITV’s This Morning from 2002 to 2023, Dancing on Ice and The Cube.
Why did Phillip Schofield leave This Morning?
He presented his last This Morning on 18 May 2023 and stepped down with immediate effect on 20 May 2023, saying ITV had decided the current situation could not go on. Six days later, on 26 May 2023, he resigned from ITV altogether after admitting an affair with a younger male colleague.
What did Phillip Schofield admit in May 2023?
In his own statement, reported by the BBC and PA, he admitted a “consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning”, which he called “unwise, but not illegal”, said it had begun while he was still married, and apologised for lying about it to ITV, his colleagues, his agents, the media and his family.
When did Phillip Schofield come out?
On 7 February 2020, in a statement published on Instagram and in an interview on This Morning the same day, in which he said he had been coming to terms with the fact that he is gay, with the support of his wife and daughters.
What was Phillip Schofield’s last TV programme?
As of October 2026, his most recent television programme is Phillip Schofield: Cast Away, a three-part Channel 5 series broadcast from 30 September to 2 October 2024, in which he spent 10 days alone on an island off the coast of Madagascar filming himself.
Is Phillip Schofield married?
He married Stephanie Lowe in March 1993 and the couple have two daughters, Molly and Ruby. They separated after he came out in February 2020, and reporting in June 2023 said they remained legally married at that time. No divorce has been reported by a reputable outlet.
What is Phillip Schofield’s net worth?
No reputable source publishes a verified figure. Amounts in search results come only from net-worth aggregator sites, conflict with each other, and should not be treated as fact.
