Phillip Schofield to make dramatic TV comeback on Channel 5 show Cast Away after former This Morning host admitted to ‘unwise’ affair with ITV colleague – live updates

Phillip Schofield’s daughter Molly has revealed that he and his wife Stephanie are ‘still best friends,’ after the presenter came out in 2020.

Phil and Stephanie have never legally divorced with sources close to the couple saying previously that she ‘still loves him’ deeply and will always remain in his ‘support system’ with their daughters Molly and Ruby.

Molly, who works as her father’s publicist, aid that despite the struggles that have beset the family, Phillip and Stephanie still have a close bond.

Speaking on Cast Away, Molly also opened up about how hard the past few years had been on her family.

She said: ‘We’ve seen him in his lowest times, but I’ve been so proud of him, and as a daughter to see the love that people had for him that when it’s taken away it’s just heartbreaking.’

By far the most entertainment to be had from last night’s episode of Cast Away (C5) was imagining the meeting which persuaded Phillip Schofield that it was a good idea to take part.

‘This could really put you back in the public eye, Phillip love,’ they might have said. ‘Because what people really want to watch these days is a big celebrity feeling sorry for themselves for an hour’.

Only an hour? It felt a lot longer. This could be the biggest television misjudgment since Prince Andrew smiled across at Emily Maitlis and said: ‘That went well, didn’t it?’

The episode came to a dramatic end with Phillip being lost in the dark and unable to find his way back to the camp.

Find out what happens next when Cast Away returns tomorrow at 9pm

Phillip said: ‘I never wanted to be famous. I’m not fussed about that. I miss parts of it certainly, I miss most of it, but there are bits that I really, really don’t miss.

‘You learn a lot about people. When it all came to a sudden end, I’d spend days in bed.

‘Cancellation is a funny old thing. If you’re cancelled you can’t do anything, everything is wrong. B***** off and let me get on with the quiet life you’ve all given me.’

Speaking to the camera about coming out, Phillip told his handheld camera: ‘For me, doing it later in life, at the moment it’s just given me more anguish than joy.

‘Because I’m fully aware of the damage that it leaves.

‘I still have the love of my family, it’s never wavered.’

The show cuts to his daughter Molly who reflects: ‘When my dad came out it was very hard for me.Everything was turned upside down but we got over it and eventually it’s got easier.

‘We will always continue to support him no matter what.

‘I never thought it would have gone the way it has but to have my parents still as best friends, I am the luckiest person ever.’

Phillip made it through the first night of his Madagascan adventure, after battling the winds all night in his tent.

Day two began with the former This Morning presenter searching for water.

He reflected: ‘There were many times when I chose to be alone. Years ago I turned all the comments off on my social media. When you get battered it hurts – it really hurts.

‘Its enough for you to think I just don’t want to do it anymore.’

Phillip got emotional while talking about his father, who tragically died of a heart attack in 2008.

He laughed: ‘If my dad was watching right now he’d literally be p****** his pants.’

The former presenter described his father as ‘kind, loving and generous,’ and dubbed him as his ‘hero’.

However, he candidly added: ‘There’s a lot I’m glad he didn’t see.’

Phillip gets emotional as he arrives on the island and gushes that he feels ‘really, really lucky.

The TV star chats the camera as he attempts to set up camp using sticks and rocks, and sets to making a fire and searching for food.

Phillip’s daughter Molly got emotional as she declared she is ‘proud’ of her dad.

The former presenter sat with his family for some final words of positivity before heading off to the remote island.

‘Keep your knives sharp, spend the day trying to find wood or you won’t be able to eat anything.

‘I shall be thinking of you all the time and I’m actually a bit jealous. Lots of love.’

Phillip said he was ‘fortune’ for his career before it all came crashing down.

Introducing the show, he recalled: ‘It all came to a very sudden abrupt end and to be cancelled – it is like the biggest grenade going off in your life.

‘You know you’ve let people down, you know you’ve let yourself down.

‘I’ll be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake. I hurt the people around me.’

He added: ‘I’m not doing this as a poor me, I don’t have a right.’

The show has began with Phillip making the dramatic statement:

‘I think there will be an awful lot of people that hope that I’d never come back’

‘I locked myself away from the outside world but now I want to see if the ultimate isolation can finally set me free.

‘…Will this be my opportunity for reflection or will I be consumed by my inner demons?’

In the upcoming show, Phillip speaks out about suffering suicidal thoughts in the aftermath of quitting This Morning and revealed how a chance encounter with a stranger helped him.

He explained that he had locked himself away at home while he struggled with his mental health but once his mum grew sick he was forced to leave and visit her at hospital in Cornwall.

Schofield recalled: ‘I walked into the reception of the hospital and a big guy with a big red face and big arms and tattoos and I walked into reception trying to find where the intensive care unit was.

‘This guy said “Schofield” and I said “yeah” and I thought “oh s**t” and he said “can I give you a hug mate?” and I said “actually do you know you can” and he gave me a massive, massive hug and said “they’re all s***s mate they’re all s***s.”‘

For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See www.samaritans.org for details

While discussing Schofield’s much-criticised television comeback on Channel 5 show Cast Away, Holmes, 64, made his feelings clear.

As co-host Isobel Webster revealed on Monday’s GB News Breakfast that Schofield claimed he was ‘thrown under the bus’, Holmes was quick to reply: ‘Well if I’m one of the people who threw him under the bus I’m very proud to have done it…

‘This man is addicted to fame, absolutely addicted to fame.’

Phillip Schofield said he ‘doesn’t care anymore’ in one sneak peek clip that saw him go on a ‘mad rant’ during his return to TV on Cast Away.

Schofield sat around a blazing log fire on THE Channel 5 survival show where he says ‘this is me having my say as I bow out’.

Looking dishevelled, he says: ‘I’ll be slammed for this, “Phillip Schofield mad rant (shakes his head)”. But the thing is, I don’t care anymore. I don’t care. This is me having my say as I bow out.’

During the second episode of the three-part show, he addressed claims of toxicity on the ITV show as ‘utter b****cks’.

‘I found out after I left that there are a few people in there that might be a little bit toxic,’ he added.

‘I never saw it … when (you’re) on the telly, you don’t see stuff like that, you’re protected from it, people don’t tell you, so I had no clue.’

Phillip Schofield is not the first celebrity to take on a lonesome survival experience.

Comedian Ruby Wax took on the Channel 5 Cast Away challenge last year and it was a huge hit.

After reaching her new home Ruby left viewers ‘in awe’ as she wielded a machete to cut down trees to build herself a shelter.

The actress, who has been open about her mental health battle, emotionally confessed to the camera she was ‘out of her depth’ before declaring in later scenes ‘mental health people are survivors because we know what it’s like to be alone’.

Fellow actress Joanna Lumley also made a similar show for the BBC in 1994, where she famously turned her bra into shoes to cope with the island’s treacherous terrain.

Phillip Schofield took a symbolic step to cut ties with ‘all the toxic people in his life’ as the isolation of being alone on an island takes its toll in the final episode of his Cast Away series.

In the third and final episode, Phillip declares he’s ending his relationships with ‘toxic people’, by scrunching up a list of names and burning it in a campfire.

In a clip from the upcoming episode, Phillip narrates: ‘There’s something i’ve done here I haven’t shared with you yet, now is the time.’

He then tells the camera: ‘Over the course of my ten days I have written down all the things and all the people who were and are toxic in my life, and so I have that now. It’s there.’

Phillip does name anyone who features on the list, but scrunches it up in his hand and adds: ‘That’s it,’ before throwing it into the fire.

It’s been over a year since Phillip Schofield left This Morning in a cloud of scandal – after he admitted to having an affair with a much younger male colleague.

But what has the presenter’s life looked like since he stepped away from the screen?

From drafting in PR help from his family to reuniting with celebrity pals, MailOnline takes a look back at Phillip’s year off the air – ahead of his imminent return.

This is the moment Phillip was dropped off on the desert island for Cast Away, leaving the camera crews behind.

The presenter looked agitated as he was seen waving goodbye to the crew for the new three-part series.

Filmed stepping off a boat and onto his new ‘home’ for the next week and a half, he wailed: ‘I’ll be entirely alone for 10 long days and nine solitary nights. God help me’.

Waving to the crew he shouts: ‘Thank you, see you in 10 days’, before musing: ‘That is the wildest feeling, oh my. S**t just got real.’

Phillip has taken to his Instagram stories to gear up for the first episode of Cast Away to go live at 9pm this evening.

The presenter quipped: ‘Nearly time!! See you at 9pm on @Channel5_tv and My5. Hope you enjoy x’

He included a previously unseen snap taken during filming, where the former ITV star is sitting underneath a canopy in front of a camera.

The disgraced presenter announced his return to mainstream TV on September 24.

Phillip 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.’

He will discuss his bitter parting of ways with ITV and This Morning, which he hosted for 21 years, while fending for himself on the island paradise, located off the coast of Madagascar.

Viewers will see the axed presenter reflect on the emotional impact of his exile from mainstream TV after news of his affair with a 20-year old runner on This Morning came to light.

It’s understood that Schofield was given a handheld camera, body cameras and a sound pack before being left to record his emotional week-and-a-half long journey.

‘What people don’t realise is that they batter you – but then there are other people affected’, Phillip Schofield’s ever-loyal wife Stephanie told him before he became a castaway on a desert island this summer.

Mrs Schofield, 59, has been unerringly supportive of her husband in an extraordinary and challenging decade that began with him coming out as gay and then losing his job on This Morning over an affair with a young producer last year.

Gone is his £2 million-a-year ‘golden handcuffs’ contract with ITV as have the lucrative deals with businesses such as Princess Cruises, We Buy Any Car and Waitrose.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as Phillip Schofield makes his first return to television since he stepped down from This Morning in May last year.

The disgraced broadcaster is appearing on Channel 5’s Cast Away in which he spends 10 days stranded on an uninhabited island off Madagascar without food, water or a production crew.

The previously beloved TV presenter shocked fans last week when he revealed he would soon be making a return to screens 16 months after an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair scandal with a younger male colleague ended his career.

Stick with our coverage as we guide you through the hour-long first episode in a three-part series.

Cast Away will be shown on Channel 5 at 9pm.