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Former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has given his first set of media interviews since his departure from the ITV daytime show and his revelation that he had an affair with a younger male colleague in comments made in May. In a statement issued to The Daily Mail last week, the broadcaster confirmed he had a “consensual on-off relationship” with the individual and while it was “unwise”, it was “not illegal” and is “now over”. “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,” he said. When asked by The Sun if he “groomed” the young co-worker, Schofield – who vaped during the interview – said he “did not” and that there were “accusations of all sorts of things”. A lengthier conversation, though, came in the form of a 45-minute long interview with the BBC’s Media Editor, Amol Rajan, which aired on Friday. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter If you’re in a hurry, here’s the key lines from the powerful interview. 1. “I understand how Caroline Flack felt” With Rajan starting the discussion by asking Schofield how he was, Schofield referenced the late ITV presenter who died by suicide in February 2020 following intense tabloid coverage of her life. She had been charged with assaulting her boyfriend after an altercation in December 2019, and left her role presenting the ITV2 reality show Love Island. Schofield said: “Last week, if my daughters hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here. They guarded me and wouldn’t let me out of their sight. “It’s like a weird numbness. I know that’s a selfish point of view, but you come to a point where you just think, ‘how much are you supposed to take? “’If all of those people who write all of that stuff, do they ever think that there’s actually a person at the other end?’” 2. “Do you want me to die?” In further comments about the “relentless” remarks made about him online and in the media, Schofield said: “If you don’t think that is going to have the most catastrophic effect on someone’s mind… Do you want me to die? “Because that’s where I am. I have lost everything. “My girls saved my life … Last week, they haven’t left me for a moment. They’ve been by my side every moment, because they’re scared to let me out of their sight. “They said to me, ‘don’t you dare do this on our watch. We’re supposed to be looking after you.’ “If my girls hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here, because I don’t see a future. And so how much do you want a man to take? “And this is how Caroline Flack felt, and it didn’t stop.” 3. His message to Holly Willoughby On the same day he “put the statement up” – suggesting it was the one posted to his Instagram Story announcing his departure from This Morning, rather than the one to the Mail – Schofield wrote to his former co-presenter on WhatsApp. He said: “I know you can’t reply, or you’re probably not allowed to, but please know that I am so desperately, desperately sorry.” He added that she did not reply to the message, said he did not see their relationship as broken and that he does not “have a problem with Holly at all” 4. The “homophobia” behind the scrutiny Referring to “new friends” he has made off the back of the scandal, Schofield revealed one “very prominent public figure” phoned him to say they had “never seen such homophobia in my life”. He continued: “If it’s a gay relationship, then suddenly it raises eyebrows. It’s wrong. People do find each other attractive in different age groups.” The broadcaster said the fact it has become “so massive” is “predominantly homophobic” and that he has become a “victim of hate”. 5. “We were mates” Explaining why he agreed to the BBC interview, Schofield said: “There is an innocent person here who didn’t do anything wrong, who is vulnerable, and probably feels like I do.” He confirmed he was paying for legal advice for the unnamed younger man, and last spoke to him a “couple of weeks” ago to instruct lawyers for him. The individual – who was 15 at the time - was followed by Schofield on Twitter following a visit to the school, and the presenter said “there has not been any whiff of impropriety” on the social media platform, where he follows more than 11,000 people. He went on to add that the man was 20 when Schofield first had sexual contact with him. “He’d been working with the show for a few months and we became mates – we were mates, around the studios, we hung out together. “And then, in my dressing room one day, something happened … It happened maybe four or five times over the next few months. “We weren’t boyfriends, we weren’t in a relationship,” Schofield said, and went on to say he did not love him. 6. “I’ve never abused my power in any way” When asked by Rajan if what was “morally wrong” about the situation was that there was an “abuse of power”, Schofield replied to say he has “never abused my power in any way” and that he is “not a bully”. The conversation soon moved to the work environment at ITV and comments made by Dr Ranj Singh, at which point the presenter stressed: “There is no toxicity, there is no bullying, there is no discrimination at This Morning. “All I see are angry people shouting about a show they’re not on anymore.” Schofield also denied the young man frequently came to his flat and that claims from Eamonn Holmes that he was taxied from the presenter's home are “utterly untrue”. ”He came to the flat once. To my recollection, he didn’t stay over. “He said he was passing. He came for a beer,” he said. 7. “The lie got too big” After Rajan questioned why the scandal has come out now, Schofield said: “It got too big. The lie got too big for both of us.” He added it was his “biggest, sorriest secret”. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Football Association will resist any USA approach for Sarina Wiegman, chief executive Mark Bullingham has said. He also insisted that the ongoing players’ bonuses dispute is now merely a “matter of time” rather than detail, and revealed the FA will also seek to host the Women’s World Cup themselves. Wiegman is now one game away from a history double, as she took a senior English national team to a World Cup final for the first time. That has naturally attracted interest from the USA, whose coach Vlatko Andonovski resigned after a huge underperformance that saw the deposed world champions eliminated in the last 16. Bullingham said the FA would “100 per cent” reject any approach. “It is not about money. We are very, very happy with her and we feel she is happy. I think that is the answer. “We’ve seen lots of rumours and, look, she is a special talent. We’ve got a bit of time because obviously she’s contracted to 2025, and she’ll obviously want to have a decent holiday after this. But all I’ll say is we’re massive fans of her. We believe she’s happy, and we’d love to continue working with her for a long time.” While the US might bank on the possibility that she might want a new challenge if she does win the World Cup with England, there is also the potential ambition of doing a clean sweep with the 2026 Olympics. Bullingham meanwhile said talks still had to take place about the bonuses the players will receive – something their success in Australia has already changed – but claimed the initial delay was down to Fifa announcing new prize money stipulations just before they travelled. “We’re sorting it after the tournament. I think they have a very strong case before, a very strong case after but the reality is, there’s a discussion to be had. There wasn’t a lot of time before the tournament, Fifa announced the prize money very late and a completely different model that led to a different type of discussion so it just means there wasn’t a lot of time. It’s more time being an issue rather than anything else. “It wasn’t an issue on bargaining position, it was more an issue on time and working through this new model, so, I think we’ll get to a good resolution. “Bonuses is always a percentage of prize money, that’s always the model I think there are lots of discussions to be had with them, but we’ve invested in them heavily in them and the women’s game and we want that to continue growing. We’ve got the opportunity to have some really interesting discussions after the tournament.” Sources close to the squad would insist those discussions still have some way to go, as the FA have not moved on their position of having a bonus structure on top of Fifa prize money. The players also feel there was still plenty of time, as illusrated by how senior FA figures did not get involved “until the last minute”. There have been no further discussions during the World Cup, as all have wanted to focus on trying to win the tournament. Bullingham also said it’s a long-term plan to host a Women’s World Cup. The FA may have to wait, however, as Germany-Netherlands-Belgium are the European bid for 2027, and if they do win, it would mean a tournament on another continent in 2031. “In terms of bidding, we’re obviously conscious we’ve had a lot of tournaments,” Bullingham said. “We’ve put a bid in for Euro 2028, and that’s obviously a big commitment. We would love to host Women’s World Cup one day, don’t get any doubt on that, we’d love to do that. If you look at the landscape, you’ve got Germany and Netherlands bidding for 2027. If they’re successful, there wouldn’t be a European bid for 2031 if they aren’t successful so you want to see maybe they go again so that would potentially be the one after that. If you’re asking us whether we would like to host World Cups, of course, we would love to.” Read More ‘Another reason to whinge’: Australian media criticise England after Matildas beaten at Women’s World Cup How England deployed dark arts and cool heads to silence Australian noise Sarina Wiegman v Jorge Vilda – a look at the coaches in Women’s World Cup final FA to build Wembley statue of England’s Lionesses after World Cup Premier League looking into ‘historic’ financial issues at Chelsea Chelsea face Premier League probe over alleged financial breaches – reports

Harry Maguire will report for England duty next week re-established as a first-choice defender for Manchester United. When Gareth Southgate’s squad met up in October Maguire had made only two starts for Erik ten Hag’s side all season but he has been ever-present in the starting XI since, usually in a partnership with veteran Jonny Evans as Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof have had to bide their time. Maguire and Evans is not a pairing many would have seen coming in the summer, when Maguire was being linked with a move away from Old Trafford and Evans was a free agent after leaving relegated Leicester. An injury to Evans will see a change made when Luton visit on Saturday, but Ten Hag said Maguire was keeping former Real Madrid defender Varane, a key part of last season’s success, out on merit. “Harry Maguire is doing very well at the moment, and I am very happy with that,” he said. “As I always said, Harry Maguire can do the job — and now he is showing he can do the job. “Last year Harry didn’t play a lot, so I was very happy with Rapha’s performances. I have always been happy with his performance. But in this moment, Harry is playing very well and there is internal competition.” Ten Hag sees Maguire and Varane as being in direct competition for the right side of central defence. Although Maguire has spent much of his career on the left, Ten Hag does not like the balance of his side with the 30-year-old there. “There are moments in certain games where they can play together and they have already proven they can do it,” he said. “But the build-up is not that fluid when one of them is playing from the left.” Last season, the partnership Varane formed with Lisandro Martinez, protected by Casemiro, helped United win the Carabao Cup and return to the Champions League. But with Martinez and Casemiro currently out injured along with Luke Shaw, and Varane out of favour, there is a different look at present. “The injuries don’t help us,” Ten Hag said. “So often you have to swap the back four and then you don’t get the routine. In such moments, it is so important to have routines. “We had a new keeper (Andre Onana) coming in and every time you form a new back four and they know the rules and principles, but the routines are not the same. “Communication is so important, but that is all split-second decisions. You need that cooperation and you need it 100 per cent because when it doesn’t work, then you concede goals at this level.” Wednesday’s dramatic 4-3 Champions League defeat in Copenhagen made it nine defeats from 17 games in all competitions for United this season, piling the pressure on Ten Hag amid on the ongoing wait for Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s purchase of a minority stake in the club to be completed. “Nothing has changed (in our approach),” Ten Hag added. “We stay in the same issues because we are not in the best moment, but I think I see that we are going forward, like at Fulham (a 1-0 win last weekend), and I thought Copenhagen was a very good game and we have to build on that. “Andre Onana came new in and in the last games has stepped up, Rasmus Hojlund is a new striker and he came in and is stepping up. That is good stuff. “We had some good midfield balance in the last two games, and hopefully we can keep that without new injuries in such departments and then I think we can really improve and find our success this season.” Read More Don’t worry about it – Ange Postecoglou brushes off series of Spurs setbacks ‘I heard what I heard’ – Tom Curry stands by racism claim against Bongi Mbonambi Katie Boulter has come ‘full circle’ as GB return to Copper Box for BJK Cup tie Mauricio Pochettino learned lessons from famous battle to mature as manager Mikel Arteta warns Aaron Ramsdale not to rush decision over Arsenal future Dawid Malan: I want to play on but I don’t know what my England future holds

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has landed in Hiroshima for diplomatic meetings