Phillip Schofield announces mother's death
In a series of poignant Instagram Story posts, Phillip Schofield has announced his mother Pat has died aged 88.
Phillip Schofield’s mother has died aged 88.
The former ‘This Morning’ presenter, 62, posted a string of Instagram Story tributes to Pat on Monday (14.10.24) night, hours after she passed away, saying he “held her, loved her, and hugged her” during her final days.
He wrote over a throwback picture of him smiling alongside his mum: “Over three days we held her, loved her, hugged her and said everything that needed to be said.
“She was calm, peaceful, beautiful and dignified. I will forever be proud and privileged that she was my mum.”
Phillip also sent his “eternal thanks” to medics and the accident and emergency department in Truro, Cornwall, who he said had been his and his mum’s “angels”.
He concluded his caption with a heartbroken emoji alongside the words: “I love you mum, forever.”
His mum’s death comes 16 years after the TV host’s father Brian was killed by a heart attack in 2008 aged 72.
Phillip’s grief comes after he made his TV comeback with his Channel 5 ‘Cast Away’ show, on which he claimed he had been “fired” from ITV for “someone else’s crime”.
The former daytime host stepped down from presenting the channel’s flagship ‘This Morning’ breakfast show in May 2023 amid huge publicity over an affair he had with a junior colleague.
He claimed on ‘Cast Away’ he didn’t resign from the show – and said he was sacked over a separate wave of negative publicity over the conviction of his paedophile brother Timothy, 54, who was sentenced to 12 months in jail in April 2023 of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019, including two of sexual activity with a child.
Phillip said on the final episode of his desert island series about how he flew into a rage when his agent called him to say he was being let go from ITV: “My phone rang and I picked it up: ‘Mate are you somewhere quiet?’ – which is never a good sign.”
He added his agent told him: “Erm, I’ve got a bit of a shock. I’m afraid you’ve been let go from ‘This Morning’.
“That’s it, it’s done. You’re not going back on Monday.”
Phillip said he asked: “What? Because of what?”, as his agent replied: “I think it's the publicity mate.”
The TV host went on: “(I told my agent) that’s got nothing to do with me… that has nothing to do with me. Why would I be sacked for something that somebody else did?”
He said: “I’ve just been fired. Because of him. Because I was becoming more of a story than the programme. It was better for the show, better for the channel.
“And I agreed to say that I’d resigned because it would be neater for everybody.
“I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother. I was fired for the bad publicity. For someone else’s crime.
“And the thing is, about a week later, I blew my own wheels off with everything else, because I thought the only way to even begin to put this right for everybody is to do a full mea culpa.
“I came clean about my affair. What people don’t realise is, I wasn’t fired from ‘This Morning’ when I admitted lying. It was before. Because of someone I used to call brother.
“But that is my last story, looking back.”
