Phillip Schofield says Cast Away will be his last TV appearance

Former This Morning host Phillip Schofield has suggested that his stint on Channel 5 desert island survival show Cast Away will be his final TV appearance.

Speaking to the cameras from a deserted Madagascan island where he spent 10 days searching for food, water and shelter, the 62-year-old says he “doesn’t care anymore, this is my opinion and I bowing out”.

Many expected Schofield to quit television for good when he left ITV, after lying and then being admitted to a relationship with a younger employee at the company. He later stepped away from the spotlight and told the BBC his career was finished.

That was until earlier this week, when it was announced he would be taking part in Channel 5’s Cast Away – prompted some media speculation that it was the first step in a wider return to the nation’s screens.

The BBC has been given a preview of the first two of three episodes, the first of which will air on Channel 5 on Monday.

One of the opening shots of the first episode shows Schofield sitting having a family barbecue with his wife Stephanie Lowe and his two daughters Molly and Ruby.

“We’ve seen him at his lowest moments, but I was so proud of him,” says Molly.

Interviews with his family are interspersed between island scenes, and his sexuality is discussed in detail.

During the first episode on the island, Schofield talks about “living your life to the fullest” and still having “the love of my family”, which he says is “never compromised”.

This is discussed in relation to Schofield coming out as gay in February 2020 on Instagram, and then discussing his announcement with co-host Holly Willoughby on ITV’s This Morning.

Molly describes coming out as “very difficult for me, very difficult for the whole family – mainly my mother of course”, and says that “everything was turned upside down”.

She says things have gotten a lot better for the family since he came out – calling herself the “luckiest person ever” because her parents remain best friends.

Schofield, who presented This Morning from 2009 to 2023, reflects a lot on the island, talking to the camera about his career on stage and in television, and what it’s been like behind the scenes since his public fall from grace .

He says he has gone to the island to empty his “toxicity tanks” and asks people to let him get on with “the quiet life you all gave me”.

The presenter says he has not gone out in public to attend to his terminally ill mother since quitting ITV, and admits he considered suicide when things got “dark”.

“​​​​I got so close, I had everything in place, everything was set and everything was ready.”

He said: “Molly said, ‘Can you imagine what this would do to us if you could pull this off? Imagine what would happen. Can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this to me?’ watch?’, and that was just enough to take a step back from the edge.

“I could have been in the hospital. I had the choice to be in the hospital, but then I thought, that has to go out. So I ran straight to the family house and closed the gates.”

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Schofield says his relationship with a younger male colleague was “indiscreet but not illegal”, and says that, during the second episode, he “made life difficult for the people I love”.

It seems he hasn’t fully moved on from his departure from ITV and the media in general, saying: “It put me under a bus.

“I could drive the same bus over so many people, but I’m not that kind of person, I never was.”

Schofield does not name anyone specifically other than his former management agency, which we know to be YMU, which represented him for more than 30 years.

“I was suicidal, like literally one push and I’m done and they sent me what looked like a cut and pasted text like ‘this time we have to let you go’,” he says.

Also, he points the finger at three “guys” he’s worked with on TV – “someone who never stood in the queue”, “someone who never stood when that one journalist hit me” and ” one person [who] focused on brands”.

“Queue” traffic references. the public backlash he faced when he and Willoughby queued up to 20 hours to visit the resting place of Queen Elizabeth II.

As Schofield enters his fourth and fifth day on the island, his apparent hunger and homelessness seem to be increasing.

As he hunts crabs at night and avoids being bitten by black widow spiders, he tells the cameras: “I’ll be slammed for the mad Phillip Schofield rant.”

His appearance is also changing, a scruffy beard and dirty clothes a far cry from his polished morning TV appearance.

“But the thing is, I don’t care anymore, this is my opinion as I bow,” he says.

Filming himself from different angles, he says he has “nothing to lose” by appearing on Cast Away, because “they pretty much took everything. Fame, dignity, legacy, everything”.

“I love what I’m getting about myself, I love every day and when I get on that boat and I leave here, I’ll know I’ve done my best and said my piece,” he says he.