'What I did was unwise': Phillip Schofield breaks down in TV comeback as he prepares to tell 'my side of my story'

25 September 2024, 12:50 | Updated: 25 September 2024, 12:54

Ex-TV presenter Phillip Schofield gets emotional in a trailer for his new TV show which sees him marooned alone on a desert island.

The former This Morning star is making a shock return to TV just 16 months after being axed from screens.

Called Cast Away, the show will see the 62-year-old sent to a tropical island for 10 days where he opens up about two years which have left his career on the brink.

In the trailer, Schofield says: "I’ve been cast away on a desert island, completely on my own.

"All I have is camera gear and I can say whatever I want about what ever I want.

"It’s my chance to tell my side of my story.

"I know what I did was unwise but is it enough to absolutely destroy someone?".

Channel 5 has said that Schofield being left on an island with a handful of cameras will allow him to "confront the challenges of total isolation, the forces of nature, and provides the time to battle within his own mind as he explores his own controversial story".

The three-part series will air across three nights from Sunday until Tuesday at 9pm on each of those days.

Schofield said: "This is most definitely a first for me and the only thing I felt compelled to do. It appealed to me on so many levels.

On Wednesday morning, the axed presenter posted behind-the-scene images of the new show on Instagram with the caption: "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.

"Cast Away starts Monday on @channel5_tv & My5 at 9pm."

Read more: Phillip Schofield breaks silence on TV comeback as he reveals secret new desert island show

Read more: Phillip Schofield set for TV comeback just 16 months after This Morning scandal

Schofield was the face of ITV's leading programmes - including This Morning and Dancing On Ice - before he resigned in 2023 over his affair with a younger colleague.

The presenter has since then stayed mainly out of the public eye, amid a review into ITV's handling of the case, before it was confirmed on Wednesday that he would return to the spotlight with a Channel 5 series.

The man in question, who has not been named officially, was hired as a runner on the ITV show aged just 19.

They had first met when Schofield's colleague was aged 15 but only had any "kind of sexual contact" was when the young man was 20.

The affair took place before Schofield publicly came out as gay and while he was still married to his wife, Stephanie Lowe.

Phillip Schofield says he has ‘lost everything’ in the wake of his secret affair