Phillip Schofield's vow to stay out of limelight in bombshell BBC interview - 16 months before TV comeback

Phillip Schofield said his career “was over” after his affair with a young male This Morning colleague came to light.

In an emotional interview with the BBC ’s Amor Rajan last June, a visibly shaking Schofield said he’d stay out of the limelight and didn’t see a future for his career. Fast forward 15 months and the presenter announces he’s making his telly comeback with Channel 5 show Cast Away.

Announcing it on his social media, he revealed: “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.”

READ MORE: Phillip Schofield's relationship with wife Steph and why she'll never leave him

It’s a far cry from where Schofe, 62, was last year. In the bombshell BBC interview, he said he doubted he would return to a career in TV.

“I have brought myself down. I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart," said Phillip, who had been on our screens for 31 years, starting on CBBC's in The Broom Cupboard, accompanied by Gordon the Gopher.

"What am I going to do with my days?" he continued. "I see nothing ahead of me but blackness, and sadness, and regret, and remorse, and guilt. I did something very wrong, and then I lied about it consistently."

He said he saw “nothing ahead” of him - and opened up about the devastating effect it had on his life..

If you don’t think that that is going to have the most catastrophic effect on someone’s mind… do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am. I have lost everything.”

He stepped down from his roles at ITV, which included hosting This Morning and Dancing on Ice with Holly Willoughby and the 2023 British Soap Awards.

Speaking about his former colleague with whom he had the affair, Schofield told Amol Rajan: "He is an innocent party here. I was older, I should have known better. [The affair] was consensual, but it was my fault."

He was also pushed on claims that there had been an abuse of power, to which he said: "I understand that, and it's a very valid question to put to me. If it's an abuse of power, it's not in my nature to be that person, but of course it could be perceived as that. But that wasn't how it felt at the time."

Schofield has slowly returned back to public life after maintaining a low profile for over a year. He went back on social media this summer after taking more than a year away from his platforms.

He has been married to Stephanie Lowe since 1993 and separated in February 2020 when Schofield came out as gay. They share two daughters and remain close friends.