ITV is ready to ban under-18s from engaged on This Morning because the broadcaster seeks to roll out new reforms within the wake of the Phillip Schofield scandal.
In keeping with the Solar, bosses on the channel are additionally planning to crackdown on alternatives for ‘nepo infants’, as they give the impression of being to make it more durable for employees to assist family and friends members out with jobs on the firm.
The transfer comes into pressure after former This Morning presenter Schofield, 62, dramatically stop the present after he admitted to having lied about an affair with a a lot youthful colleague in Might 2023.
The person, who was simply 15 when he met the presenter for the primary time and who he helped land a coveted job as a runner on This Morning on the age of 19, began working for the present in 2019.
A romantic relationship between the pair started when the person was 20, after which he moved to a different ITV daytime present, Unfastened Girls. He later left the channel with a separate payout.
Schofield has barely been seen on TV because the affair got here to mild and has subsequently refused to participate in an ITV probe and parliamentary inquiry into the connection.
Former This Morning presenter Schofield, 62, dramatically stop the present after he admitted to having lied about an affair with a a lot youthful colleague in Might 2023.
An insider instructed the Solar that ITV ‘does not need something just like the Schofield scandal occurring once more’ and is striving to create a protected work atmosphere for everybody (file picture)
An insider instructed the Solar that ITV ‘does not need something just like the Schofield scandal occurring once more’ and is striving to create a protected work atmosphere for everybody.
An outdated profession website exhibits that the channel was at one level hiring youngsters youthful then 16, with one advert for a weeklong ‘Expertise Programme’ focused in direction of 14-17 yr olds.
The programme continues to be operating and the age requirement has now been bumped as much as 18, as acknowledged on the official internet web page.
Moreover, it was revealed final yr that each one employees on the broadcaster had been instructed to declare any office relationships.
Schofield separated from his spouse Stephanie, whom he had been married to for 27 years, in 2020 after popping out as homosexual.
Following his resignation from This Morning, ITV organised a assessment into the scandal and the ‘poisonous tradition’ on the present final yr.
A report by Jane Mulcahy KC discovered that employees nonetheless feared talking out on such issues because it may damage their careers.
Some 48 individuals have been interviewed for the probe and of those, only one stated that they knew concerning the relationship earlier than Might 2023.
The report additionally discovered that ITV didn’t cover-up the scandal and that station bosses had made ‘appreciable efforts’ to find the reality in 2019 – 4 years earlier than the affair broke. The exterior assessment discovered that the channel was ‘unable to uncover the related proof’ till Schofield’s personal admission.
In her report, Ms Mulcahy stated at the moment: ‘I’ve little question that senior administration are completely wedded to the significance of an open tradition.
Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby hug as he comes out as homosexual ‘This Morning’ TV present in 2020 earlier than the pandemic
Phil and Holly pictured on This Morning twenty years in the past, in 2004
Phllip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on the tv present, ‘Dancing On Ice’ in February 2023
‘However this tradition continues to be not filtering right down to junior staff, lots of whom stay satisfied that to talk out can have a detrimental impression on their careers.’
In a BBC interview, father-of-two Schofield insisted he had not groomed the younger man after assembly him at a stage faculty.
Confessing to be ‘totally damaged and ashamed,’ he added: ‘We have been mates, after which in my dressing room someday, one thing occurred, which clearly I’ll remorse for ever, for him and for me – principally him – however that occurred possibly 4 or 5 occasions over the following few months.
‘I do know it is unforgivable. However we weren’t boyfriends. We weren’t in a relationship. I used to be actually in a multitude with my very own sexuality on the time, and it simply occurred.’
Schofield additionally stated the person landed his This Morning function ‘on his personal benefit… as a result of he was superb at his job’. He added: ‘All people cherished him. He labored very laborious.’
In February, it was revealed that the presenter paid his former lover a six-figure sum in return for signing a non-disclosure settlement (NDA) which suggests the youthful man is prevented from ever speaking about their relationship.
A supply acquainted with the NDA has instructed the Mail on Sunday the complete particulars of the affair may carry additional ache for him ought to they ever be revealed.
The person – referred to solely as Individual X by ITV throughout its investigation – was represented by prime London legislation agency Mishcon de Reya within the negotiations surrounding the NDA.
MailOnline have approached ITV and Philip Schofield for a remark.