Phillip Bryan Schofield ( SKOH-field; born 1 April 1962) is an English television presenter. He began his career as a Children's BBC continuity announcer from 1985 to 1987, and went on to present a wide range of high-profile programmes for the BBC and ITV, including Going Live! (1987–1993), This Morning (2002–2023), Dancing on Ice (2006–2014, 2018–2023), All Star Mr & Mrs (2008–2016), and The Cube (2009–2015, 2020–2021).
In February 2020, Schofield came out as gay and separated from his wife of 27 years. In May 2023, he admitted that before leaving his wife he had carried on an extramarital affair with a young male ITV co-worker. Amid extensive media coverage, Schofield resigned from ITV, was removed as an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, and was dropped by the talent agency that had represented him for over 35 years.
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Early life
Phillip Schofield was born on 1 April 1962, in Oldham, but moved to Newquay, Cornwall at the age of eighteen months. His father Brian H. Schofield (1935–2008) worked on Pargolla Road with Bilbo, a company which made the first surfboards in the UK. His mother, Pat Schofield, died in October 2024. He has a younger brother, Timothy Schofield, born in 1969.
Schofield attended Trenance Infant School and Newquay Tretherras School. His first job was working at a local ice-cream kiosk. Schofield often attended the Radio 1 Roadshow, which he described as "an unforgettable event when it came to town." When he was 15, Schofield's first foray into media was a Sunday show on Hospital Radio Plymouth. Despite moving so young, he says he is proud of his Lancashire roots (Oldham being in the county of Lancashire until 1974). After many years of writing letters to the BBC, at 17, Schofield took up the position of bookings clerk and tea boy for BBC Radio at Broadcasting House in London, where he was, at the time, the youngest employee.
Television career
1985–1993, 2001–2006: BBC presenting
Aged 19, Schofield moved with his family to New Zealand, where he made his television debut as the initial presenter of the youth music programme Shazam! on 7 April 1982. He also spent two years working for the Auckland-based radio station Radio Hauraki.
In 1985, he returned to Britain, where he became the first in-vision continuity presenter for Children's BBC (CBBC) on weekdays for two years from September 1985 in "The Broom Cupboard", the former studio presentation for the BBC Children's services, which introduced his friend and colleague Gordon the Gopher. Schofield left The Broom Cupboard in 1987, with Andy Crane succeeding him in the role. He then presented Going Live! on Saturday mornings between September 1987 and April 1993. From 1988 to 1991, he was the host of the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, a pop-magazine awards show. In the early 1990s, Schofield moved to adult-orientated television with various programmes for ITV, such as Schofield's Quest, Schofield's TV Gold and Ten Ball. From 1994 to 1997, he presented Talking Telephone Numbers for five series, and in 1996 he hosted a show about remarkable coincidences called One in a Million. He co-authored the book that came out of the series.
In 1991, Schofield hosted a series named after Gordon which was shown on CBBC on BBC One and BBC Two and ran from 3 January 1991, to 28 March 1991, only lasting for a series of 13 episodes. The series was shown twice on BBC One, the first time being in January to March 1991 and again from 26 October to 21 December 1992. It continued where BBC Two left off with lunchtime repeats in Summer 1991. BBC Two have also repeated the series at lunchtimes four times from 18 June to 23 July 1991, 20 September to 6 December 1993, 9 March to 1 June 1994, and 17 January 1995, to 28 March 1995. It has not been repeated since 28 March 1995, on the BBC.
In the following decade, Schofield presented the National Lottery Winning Lines programme for BBC One between June 2001 and October 2004. Between 2002 and 2006, he co-hosted the BBC quiz show Test the Nation with Anne Robinson. In July 2006, he signed an exclusive two-year contract with ITV, reported to have been worth £5 million. The exclusive deal also meant he could no longer present Test the Nation, and he was replaced by Danny Wallace.
1993–2023: ITV presenting
In August 2002, Schofield became a presenter on the ITV daytime show This Morning, joining John Leslie and Fern Britton on Fridays. In October of that year, Leslie stepped aside from the programme after allegations about his personal life, and Schofield replaced him as Britton's co-host, first on a temporary and then a permanent basis. In May 2008, Schofield's father died from a long-standing heart condition, after which Schofield took a break from presenting This Morning. John Barrowman stood in for him until his return. In 2009, Holly Willoughby replaced Britton as Schofield's co-host. Schofield and Willoughby had a close friendship, with Schofield describing her as "the sister he never had", and they presented the programme together from Monday to Thursday mornings until Schofield's departure in May 2023. Willougby departed the programme in October 2023.
During his 2005 Room 101 appearance, Schofield made an attempt to place Gordon in Room 101 (i.e., consign him to the past), but in an audience vote Gordon was spared. Gordon also made a brief appearance with Schofield during a 1980s-themed edition of Dancing on Ice in February 2009. He also made a brief appearance on 5 February 2012, edition. Gordon appeared on This Morning on 13 September 2010, to celebrate Schofield's 25th anniversary of first presenting CBBC. Schofield said "I miss him". Starting in 2005, Schofield presented two series of Have I Been Here Before?, a daytime programme in which a celebrity attempted to use regression to get in touch with a previous life.
From 2006 to 2023, he presented The British Soap Awards. Between 2006 and 2008, he hosted the programme with Britton. During the run of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, he co-hosted the spin-off series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! Exclusive with Sheree Murphy. The show lasted one series. In 2006, Schofield presented two episodes of the ITV game show It's Now or Never, before the network cancelled the show, due to poor ratings. In April 2008, he and Britton began hosting a revival of the ITV game show Mr and Mrs, renamed as All Star Mr & Mrs. In 2010, the show took a break but returned in 2012 without Britton.
Schofield presented Dancing on Ice on ITV with Willoughby from 2006 until 2011 and Christine Bleakley from 2012 until 2014. It was announced in the summer of 2013 that Dancing on Ice was to come to an end following the 2014 series. Schofield returned to co-present the show with Willoughby in 2018 following ITV's choice to bring the series back after four years away. From 2009 until 2015, he presented the primetime game show The Cube, which offered contestants the chance to win a top prize of £250,000. Schofield returned to present the show in 2020 following ITV's choice to reboot the series after five years away, although it was later put on hiatus again in 2022. The only winner of the series was runner Mo Farah, who successfully completed the final game on an episode of a 2012 celebrity series in which British gold medallist athletes competed for charity.
Return to television
After a 16-month break from the public eye, it was announced, on 25 September 2024, that Schofield would return on Channel 5's reality show Cast Away, which would see him left stranded on an island alone for 10 days without a film crew and filming his experience himself. The series was set to begin on 30 September and would air over three 60-minute episodes. The first episode prompted mixed reactions. Schofield suggested it would be his last television appearance. Following the final episode of the series, aired on 3 October, Schofield addressed his "haters", speaking about "toxic" people in his life and his brother Timothy. During the episode, Schofield bared his backside as he ran into the sea for a nighttime swim, in a scene that many viewers complained about on social media.
Other ventures
Radio
While working as presenter of Going Live!, Schofield was also broadcasting on BBC Radio 1 with a Sunday show of the same name. When Radio 1 started to broadcast in FM stereo in 1988, Schofield was one of the presenters chosen to help with the launch.
In February 2010, Schofield launched Radio Plymouth in Devon.
Theatre
Schofield first performed on the West End stage in 1991, taking over the role of Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from Jason Donovan. While appearing in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Schofield was approached to record a cover of "Close Every Door" to be released as a single. The single was released in December 1992 on Polydor Records and peaked at number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.
The second musical he performed in was the title role of Doctor Dolittle at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1998, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at the curtain call of the musical. In 2000, Schofield toured the UK with the show. He reprised his role as Joseph for an episode of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway in March 2018.
Adverts
Schofield did numerous adverts for the car buying service We Buy Any Car, and was also a brand ambassador for the company. He was dropped by the company in October 2022 amid criticism for Schofield and Willougby not joining the Queue for the lying-in-state of Elizabeth II with the public, and all adverts featuring Schofield were later removed from the company's YouTube channel without explanation, although the revelations about Schofield's affair in May 2023 likely resulted in the decision.
Book
Schofield released his autobiography, Life's What You Make It, on 15 October 2020. The book was issued by Penguin Books and was described as "his funny, uplifting, occasionally heartbreaking and always honest life story". It received positive reviews from fellow presenters including Lorraine Kelly, Michael Ball, Zoe Ball, Andrea McLean, Steve Wright and Chris Moyles, and newspapers including the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail.
Wine
Schofield collects Bordeaux wines, an interest kindled by Donovan. Asked in 1992 to introduce a compilation video for Donovan, Schofield refused to accept payment. He was sent two cases of Burgundy by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman with a set of tasting notes; Schofield joined the Wine Society two years later.
In 2013, Schofield began writing for the Waitrose Weekend newspaper and became the face of wine in their UK stores. In 2020, Waitrose began exclusively selling a range of Phillip Schofield–branded Italian boxed wines created by the wine company When in Rome. However, Waitrose ceased selling the Schofield wines in 2022 after negative reviews. When in Rome stopped selling the wines on its own website after revelations emerged about Schofield's affair, saying "this collaboration has drawn to a natural conclusion".
Personal life
Schofield holds dual British and New Zealand citizenship. In March 1993, at Ackergill Tower, near Wick, Caithness, he married his partner, Stephanie Lowe, whom he had met when he was twenty-five and working at CBBC, where she was a production assistant. The couple have two daughters, born in 1993 and 1996. On 7 February 2020, Schofield came out as gay via a statement posted on Instagram Stories. In a follow-up interview on This Morning, he stated that "with the strength and support of my wife and my daughters, I have been coming to terms with the fact that I am gay". He stated he had thought he was bisexual at the time he married Lowe. Schofield and Lowe separated, after which he moved out of the family home in Fawley, Buckinghamshire, and moved to Chiswick, London. They also owned a flat in the London Borough of Southwark, which they purchased in 2012 and sold in 2024. As of June 2023, Schofield and Lowe are still legally married and he continues to wear his wedding ring.
Affair controversy
Following months of speculation about his private life, and widespread reports of a feud with Willoughby, Schofield presented This Morning for the last time on 18 May 2023, after more than 20 years in the role. Two days later, he announced his departure from the programme with immediate effect, saying: "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." In the first broadcast after his exit, Hammond and O'Leary praised Schofield as "one of the best live television broadcasters this country has ever had". A broadcasting executive subsequently told The Times that Willoughby had given ITV an ultimatum that either she or Schofield had to leave the programme.
In a statement to the Daily Mail on 26 May, Schofield admitted that, before leaving his wife in 2020, he had carried on an extramarital affair with a younger male ITV co-worker. He had first met the co-worker while giving a talk at the drama school where the latter was then a 15-year-old student. Schofield later arranged a job interview for the co-worker at This Morning, where he was hired as a production assistant. Schofield stated that the affair had begun when the co-worker was 20 years old, at which point Schofield was in his mid-50s, and admitted lying about it to ITV's management, his colleagues, his lawyers, his agent and his friends and family. He resigned from ITV and apologised for his lies, while calling the relationship "consensual" and "unwise but not illegal."
ITV said it had investigated rumours of a relationship between Schofield and the co-worker in early 2020, but that both men had repeatedly denied the affair. News of Schofield's affair and departure from ITV received extensive coverage in the British media. Elton John said that "If it was a straight guy in a fling with a young woman, it wouldn't even make the papers" while Jeremy Clarkson said "It seems to me he is only guilty of being what he said he was: gay." Piers Morgan also supported Schofield, saying it was time for the media to stop its "relentless persecution".
Following his resignation, Schofield gave separate interviews to BBC's Amol Rajan and The Sun in June 2023, in which he apologised to the co-worker for bringing the "greatest misery into his totally innocent life." He denied grooming the man, and said that he had lied not to protect his own career but to preserve the co-worker's privacy. He said that the two had never been in a "love affair" and were still friends. He said his career was over; he said he had "lost everything" and felt "utterly broken", embarrassed and ashamed. He claimed that if not for his daughters Ruby and Molly guarding him, he would have attempted suicide. Although he acknowledged the age difference, Schofield said he believed homophobia was a factor in the media coverage, suggesting that an affair with a woman would not have created such a scandal.
Brother's arrest and conviction
In April 2023, Schofield's brother, Timothy, was found guilty of sexual offences against a teenage boy. It was revealed during the trial that Timothy had told Phillip some details of the offences in September 2021; Phillip did not report this to the police but suggested that his brother seek help from a doctor. Following the conviction Schofield said "As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother." In May 2023 Timothy was sentenced to 12 years' jail for child abuse.
Honours and awards
Schofield was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts (D.Arts) by the University of Plymouth in 2011 for his stage and television career.