Phillip Schofield ‘devastated’ by This Morning axing as new details emerge

Holly Willoughby will be taking the next two weeks off from the show following recent events.

Phillip Schofield is reportedly "completely broken" after announcing he has left This Morning after more than twenty years. According to The Sun, the 61-year-old has been given six months’ wages as a parting gift. He was reportedly on around £700,000 a year, so will likely take away more than £300,000. In a statement on Saturday, Schofield wrote that he was quitting to "protect the show" which had become the focus of media reports due to his deteriorating relationship with co-presenter, Holly Willoughby. Schofield said he was leaving with "immediate effect" from the show he joined in 2002, as ITV had decided “the current situation can’t go on, and I want to do what I can to protect the show that I love". A source told The Sun the payout hasn’t soften the blow of having to leave his job: "Phil feels he has been shown zero respect and he is devastated by how this has played out. He thinks the way he was forced to step down was so unjust and he feels completely broken by how this situation has been handled. This Morning was Phil’s life and now he feels he has been knifed without proper consultation." The insider said Phil had “dedicated” 20 years to This Morning, so leaving in this was "has been incredibly upsetting". The Sun earlier revealed that Schofield learned he lost his job just minutes after coming off air Thursday. Monday’s show will be hosted by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, while Holly Willoughby will be taking two weeks off following these recent events, returning on Monday 5 June. Willoughby and Schofield’s fallout is said to date back three years when the 42-year-old split from the YMU agency. She later won a £1 million payout from the business, of which Schofield is still a shareholder. Schofield is to host the British Soap Awards on Saturday 3 June and will host a new, yet-to-be-named, peak-time series. This article first appeared on JOE.co.uk

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