If there was a river called Self Pity, Phil Schofield would have drowned in it by now.
And as he was going down he’d be screaming the names of the “three sh**s” he claims wrecked his career.
Because in Schofield’s world everyone is to blame for his catastrophic downfall – except him.
The “three sh**s” he refers to in his TV comeback, Castaway, have been revealed as Holly Willoughby, his This Morning Editor, Martin Frizzell and MD of ITV Daytime, Emma Gormley.
Friends say he now calls Holly ‘The Witch’ and has reportedly told her:“You brought me down”.
But I’m guessing that having worked with this arrogant, up- himself little man for years and regularly covering his backside without any thanks these three might well have been glad to see the back of him.
But to hold them responsible for his sacking shows how deluded and disturbed Schofield is.
Maybe it’s the long, lonely months sitting at home without work that have warped his mind and convinced him he was betrayed.
Or maybe it’s because he still can’t believe the speed with which he went from a £2m per year TV hero to zero.
Or could it simply be that he’s an out and out narcissist who’d come to believe his own publicity about how wonderful he was, how much loved and how invincible he was that has stopped him accepting that it’s all over for him in TV.
But more worrying is the fact he’s still refusing to believe that HE was the architect of his own destruction – not Holly, not Martin Frizzell, not Emma Gormley.
Because everything that’s happened to him starts and ends with his relationship with the vulnerable young man who he later helped get a job as a runner on This Morning.
After Schofield’s sacking back in 2023 Eammon Holmes said the TV presenter’s affair with the young man was well known and that the two would spend time at his London flat.
I won’t regurgitate all the details that have already been well documented about this relationship. But if he’s so adamant he did nothing wrong why did pay this young man a six figure sum to forever gag him from talking about their relationship? And why did he deny it to his bosses, his wife and daughters, to the public?
He clearly decided to do Castaway so he could tell us all yet again that people were out to destroy him because he was so special, so loved, so important.
Which is classic narcissistic behaviour – together with arrogance, lack of empathy, a feeling of entitlement, someone who must be admired, sense of self-importance- all of which Schofield has in spades.
He bangs on about being the innocent party in all this completely forgetting that the vulnerable young man at the centre of it all is.
Channel 5’s Castaway has just been one long whinge fest for Schofield who told his side of the story in a BBC interview back in June 2023 but is clearly still stewing and Channel 5 gave him the opportunity to spew more ratings winning bile at those he holds responsible for his downfall.
In unseen Castaway footage which his friends – presumably with his permission – are now making public, he blames Frizzell for sending him and Holly to see the Queen’s coffin – something for which they were both castigated having been accused of pushing to the front of the queue to do it. He reckons he begged Frizzell not to send him because, say his friends, he foresaw it would backfire.
Oh no he didn’t . He wanted the world to see the wonderful, compassionate Phil Schofield weeping and paying his respects because he thought he’d be adored for it.
And this allegation is particularly funny because anyone who knows or has worked with Schofield – and years ago I did when his ego was already ballooning – knows that no-one, but no-one could make him do anything he didn’t want to do.
He also claims he made Holly’s career by choosing her to be his This Morning partner when people at the time believed he chose her because having presented the show with Fern Britton who was cleverer, wittier and a way better interviewer than him he wanted someone less challenging who wouldn’t steal his limelight.
He wanted to be the star of the pairing and he believed Holly would be no match for what he saw as his political intellect and his interviewing technique.
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But it turned out his protegee became the bigger star and in the end was bagging more big money making ad contracts than Schofield.
Even now he refuses to accept that as the presenter of a family daytime show – and a married man – his relationship with a vulnerable young man was wholly inappropriate.
Schofield will never be able to move on until he accepts that fact. But he never will. Because in his head he’ll forever be the wronged superstar whose place in the limelight was cruelly snatched away.
Burning Bright Productions who made Castaway for Channel 5 want to do more documentaries with him: “He’s open to it but he wants time to consider his options,” said a spokesman.
And there’s the narcissist in him. Schofield believes that having done Castaway and told “his truth” something much bigger and better is going to come along and re instate him to his rightful place as the TV King. He needs to realise it isn’t.
Then the healing can begin….