Phillip Schofield’s daughter Molly Schofield has urged viewers of his new Channel 5 series Cast Away to “forgive” her father as he makes a candid affair admission.
16 months after he was axed from This Morning for an “unwise but not illegal” affair, the star made his return by spending 10 days stranded on a Madagascan island – completely alone.
During the episodes, viewers are shown clips of Schofield sitting with his family discussing how he feels ahead of the challenge, with the star admitting he felt people would want him to “stay there”.
In the first episode – which aired last night – his daughter admitted how “proud” she was of her father and admitted: “We’ve seen him in his lowest times, but I’ve been so proud of him, so proud of him. And as a daughter, to see the love that people had for him.
“But when it’s taken away, it’s just heartbreaking. On a desert island, you can’t fake it, this is the real you so you can’t hide anything. And I really hope that people see him how we see him because he is just amazing.”
Tonight, Molly urged fans who were watching the show, and who have watched Schofield across his staggering 31-year TV career to “forgive” the star for his “mistake”.
Schofield opened the episode and admitted: “It’s gone and it’s not the way you planned it to be and the life you expected to have. You adapt, you adapt to new things. I have to adapt to a new life.”
Molly then appeared on screen and simply said: “I would love people to understand what actually happened and forgive him for a mistake.”
In the third and final episode, his daughter adds: “Seeing him recover, we never thought that would happen. We never thought that would happen. So now he is where he is. It is the best thing ever, seeing how far he’s come.
“I am so incredibly proud to say he’s my dad, and I always will be, no matter what.”
The 62-year-old was seen sitting around his campfire after successfully catching his first fish before erupting into a rant about how he felt he had been treated when the news of his affair was first brought to light.
He began: “I know what I did and I wish I hadn’t and I know that I made life tough for the people that I love the most. But people just went. Who I thought were my friends and they just went and that’s like what the hell?
“I have been chucked under a bus and I could drive the same bus over so many people but I am not that sort of person, I never have been. I won’t sit on a sofa again and there are some people I won’t work for again and there’s people that I won’t work with again.
“I have been hurt so badly that I don’t want to do it anymore. When what happened to me happened to me, it screwed up my favourite building in the world and it blew away all the happy memories and became hostile to me, that was heartbreaking.”
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The star added: “The people who did it to me they know how important that building is to me. When you throw someone under the bus you have to have a good reason to do it.
“Brand, ambition is not good enough, it is not a good enough reason to throw someone under a bus.
“It is hard to come to terms with the fact that the people you thought you knew were not the people you knew. They had completely different agendas.”