I worked as Head of News at ITV’s This Morning from September to December 2019, before quitting due to bullying, sexism and a toxic culture of fear and intimidation.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, this will chime with the reams that has now been reported about the catastrophic and disturbing downfall of ITV’s onetime jewel in the crown of programming and the former King of daytime TV, Phillip Schofield. Last week, Phillip was forced to quit ITV after admitting to lying over a relationship he had with a young, male colleague, whom he first met when the young man was just 15 and whom Phillip later secured a job for on the show. This follows a very public falling out between Phillip and his former best friend and co-host, Holly Willoughby, over reports that Phillip didn’t tell her about his now convicted paedophile brother, Timothy Schofield.
Since Phillip quit, there has been an avalanche of allegations about the toxic culture at This Morning with former presenters including Eamonn Holmes and Dr Ranj Singh revealing their experiences. There have also been allegations that ITV did not investigate numerous concerns and complaints. On Wednesday, the TV station announced that they would be launching an external investigation into the scandal at This Morning.
Did I experience a toxic atmosphere? Yes. Sexism? Yes. Bullying? Yes. Homophobia? Yes.
Here are some extracts from my (lengthy) exit interview that I wrote on December 6th 2019 and was requested to submit by ITV’s HR department upon tendering my resignation.
“I am sad to report there is a culture of intimidation at This Morning and on a number of occasions this has prevented me from doing my job to the best of my ability” I wrote. “I witnessed a number of incidents where I felt XX was unreasonable and unkind to a female producer and it created a climate of fear. I also overheard what I found to be sexist comments.” Speaking about the culture of burnout, I added, “I worry about my team’s mental health”. I also outlined specific incidents of bullying by named individuals and unreasonable behaviour towards myself and other female colleagues.
Did I hear about the rumours about Schofield and his young male lover? Yes, it was an open secret amongst the production team. Did I think that those in power knew about Schofield and his lover? Yes, I believe they were complicit.
Were King and Queen of ‘kindness’, the BFFs of bonhomie, Holly and Phil, as fun, friendly and fits-of-fizzy-giggles-funny as they appear on screen? No.
This week, Eamonn Holmes rebuked Schofield’s statement that This Morning was not a toxic environment. He said:
“This nonsense that he [Schofield] wrote today about toxicity, about it’s a happy place and whatever… holy god, what planet does this man live on? He created an atmosphere where people hated him.”
“People would avoid him in the corridor. He didn’t look at anybody, he didn’t know anybody’s names. Holly doesn’t know people’s names either. This is legendary within the production team, that how distant they are and how they just don’t care.”