Carol McGiffin has slammed ITV as ‘cut-throat and ruthless’ amid the Phillip Schofield scandal at This Morning.
The former Loose Women presenter, 63, – who quit the show last month after it feeling it had become to ‘woke’ – said that the ‘ITV daytime family’ was ‘about as dysfunctional as they come’.
It comes as allegations of a ‘toxic’ environment behind the scenes at ITV have emerged with the likes of Eammon Holmes and Dr Ranj making accusations.
Carol also recently claimed a runner on her show was sacked to make room for Phillip’s ‘much younger’ lover.
A host of ITV staff members have spoken out after Schofield admitted that he engaged in an extramarital relationship with a young staff member on This Morning – who moved to Loose Women after the fling.
Phillip has now quit the show and is no longer on speaking terms with his former co-star Holly Willoughby who has claimed he lied to her about the affair.
Having her say: Carol McGiffin has slammed ITV as ‘cut-throat and ruthless’ amid the Phillip Schofield drama at This Morning
Difficult: A host of ITV staff members have spoken out after Schofield admitted that he engaged in an extramarital relationship with a young staff member on This Morning
Speaking to Best magazine Carol has now said: ‘They go on about the ‘ITV Daytime Family’ being cosy best mates, all caring and kind, but in my opinion it’s about as dysfunctional as they come.
‘It’s cut-throat, competitive and ruthless, and can be quite unpleasant, and as soon as your face doesn’t fit anymore, or you disagree with their narrative, you’re out the door.’
Carol recently claimed a runner on her show was sacked to make room for Phillip’s ‘much younger’ lover.
A host of ITV staff members have spoken out after Schofield admitted that he engaged in an extramarital relationship with a young runner on This Morning – who moved to Loose Women after the fling.
After it was alleged that Schofield’s lover was moved to another programme to ‘sort a problem’ the presenter insisted this wasn’t the case, saying it is ‘categorically untrue’ that he had anything to do with the move and that the runner had applied for the role and got it on his own merit.
McGiffin offered her take on the move when she appeared on GB News.
Speaking about the Loose Women runner who was replaced by Schofield’s lover, she said: ‘Everybody was really quite upset about it because you know everybody loved him and he was a great runner…
Tough: Phillip has now quit the show and is no longer on speaking terms with his former co-star Holly Willoughby who has claimed he lied to her about the affair
Speaking out: Carol also recently claimed a runner on her show was sacked to make room for Phillips’s ‘much younger’ lover
Strong words: Carol also claimed that none of the Loose Women panel like Phillip as she reacted to the presenter breaking his silence on his affair
‘One day I got a text message and it was from the young man in question and he said ‘I’m the new productions secretary at Loose Women’.
‘I thought, ‘hang on a minute what’s happened here’. I didn’t even know that he had gone at the time. He was a great guy [and then] he disappeared.’
Carol also claimed that none of the Loose Women panel like Phillip as she reacted to the presenter breaking his silence on his affair.
She heaped criticism on the ex-This Morning presenter, 61, as she spoke to Dan Wootton on GB News last week.
Her comments came just hours after Schofield said he was ‘broken and ashamed’, but in his first interview since admitting an affair he claimed he did not groom his colleague.
Schofield resigned from ITV last week and was dropped by his agency YMU after admitting to an ‘unwise, but not illegal’ affair with a younger male colleague.
Reacting to his first interview since the news, Ms McGiffin claimed that none of the Loose Women panel liked him, and said no one has said ‘a good word’ about him.
‘I don’t know anybody who’s actually ever said out loud that they really like Phillip,’ she said.
‘I don’t think he was liked by any of the Loose Women, I never heard anybody there say that they actually like him and no one ever really had a good word for him.’
This Morning always features a segment with the Loose Women panel before they hand over to the show on ITV, and Carol claimed Schofield always made it ‘uncomfortable’ because he was ‘dismissive’.
She also alleged that a runner on Loose Women was let go from his role when Schofield’s lover was promoted to a new position on the show from This Morning.
The ‘unprecedented’ move is said to have left several members of the Loose Women panel ‘uncomfortable’, and Ms McGiffin has now spoken about those claims.
The presenter, who was recently forced to quit Loose Women, said: ‘Everybody was really quite upset about it because everybody loved him. And he was a great runner.
‘I got a text message and it was from the young man in question. And he said, I’m the new production secretary at Loose Women. I thought, “Hang on a minute. What’s happened here?”‘
She also alleged that Schofield was trying to ‘take the fall’ for bosses at ITV as she voiced her opinion that This Morning cannot carry on, even without him, and should be axed.
She said: ‘I’m pretty certain that he’s trying to take the fall for them all. And the way I see it, they’re so arrogant. Most TV bosses are the same. They’re really arrogant.
‘They think they’re invincible and they just think, “Right, let’s just carry on, move along, put Holly [Willoughby] back on the show, let’s just get back to normal and everything will be all right, Phillip’s apologised and it’s all going to be okay” – but it’s not going to be okay.
‘I think genuinely that This Morning, this show can’t go on. I think it’s way too tainted.’
MailOnline has contacted ITV for comment.
Last week, an ITV spokesperson said: ‘ITV can confirm that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in early 2020 ITV investigated.
‘Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours as did Phillip’s then agency YMU.
Tough: Schofield broke his silence last week by saying he’s ‘broken and ashamed’ but not a groomer in his first interview since admitting an affair
‘In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on This Morning and were not provided with, and did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.
‘Phillip’s statement reveals that he lied to people at ITV, from senior management to fellow presenters, to YMU [his management agency], to the media and to others over this relationship.’
Last month, Ms McGiffin was forced to quit Loose Women after a bizarre radio rant, including claiming the Covid pandemic was a World Health Organisation plot to take over every government.
She confirmed that she had left the lunchtime show, protesting that ITV insisted she sign a contract with clauses that were ‘totally unjust and unworkable’.
But The Mail on Sunday then disclosed that a free speech row was at the centre of her departure, after a backlash over her tirade in an interview on TNT Radio.
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