Gogglebox takes aim at Phillip Schofield in scathing episode as Giles and Mary address star’s controversial departure
GOGGLEBOX has taken a swipe at Phillip Schofield’s This Morning departure – hours after he confirmed he’d quit ITV altogether.
Just a short while after Phillip released a bombshell statement about the future of his career, the Gogglebox stars were shown discussing him in Friday night’s pre-recorded show.
The armchair critics were watching last week’s This Morning, as standby hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary announced Phil had left.
But Mary Killen told her husband Giles: “We don’t know what’s going on, do we, behind the scenes.”
He replied: “It’s all very rum. It’s all very rum, Nutty.
“Phil leaving the show is like a glitch in the Matrix, Mary. No one knows what the glitch is or why it’s happened.”
Pete Sandiford, meanwhile, joked to his sister Sophie: “Right, now we’ve brushed that under the carpet on to today’s show!
“Anyway! Off now to Phil Vickery with a succulent sausage casserole!”
Fans watching at home were left bemused by the scenes, as the reason for Phil’s departure had actually been confirmed just hours before Gogglebox hit screens.
Phillip has admitted to having an affair with a younger male colleague and lying to both his wife and fellow workers about it.
He has announced he will no longer be working with ITV. His management company has cut all ties with him after a staggering 30 year partnership.
Phillip will also no longer be hosting next week’s British Soap Awards.
ITV, meanwhile, has said in a statement they are “deeply disappointed” by Schofield’s “admissions of deceit”.
Taking to Twitter, Gogglebox fans were quick to comment on the “awkward” timing of the episode.
One wrote: “Wooah this is awkward!”
Another added: “Ha ha …was it too late to re-edit #gogglebox?!”
A third said: “Weird to see them commenting on the #ThisMorning stuff considering what was reported earlier…’
And someone else commented: “Too late to edit tonight’s episode of #gogglebox? ‘We don’t know what’s going on’- we do now!”
This wasn’t the last time the Phillip saga was mentioned in Friday night’s Gogglebox, either.
Later in the episode, other cast members were also shown giving their opinion on the TV star.
Still in the dark due to the time of filming, Alison Worthington told her daughter Helena: “What’s he done? Nothing. He’s done nothing.”
Yet Tom Malone Snr told his family: “It’s time for a change. It’s been 21 f***ing years.”
In a statement on Friday evening, Schofield admitted he had an affair with a “much younger” This Morning worker while still married.
He said he is “deeply sorry” for the affair, which he said was “unwise, but not illegal”.
Phillip said: “I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague.
“Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship.
“That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over. When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody ‘forced’ me out.
“Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me.
“In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.
“But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.
“I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family.
“I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.
“I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me.
“I will reflect on my very bad judgement in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it.
“To protect his privacy, I am not naming this individual and my deepest wish is that both he and his family can now move on with their lives free from further intrusion, and that this statement will enable them to do so.
“I ask the media now to respect their privacy. They have done nothing wrong, and I ask that their privacy should be respected.”