Jason Gardiner reveals curt reply from Phillip Schofield over affair

‘It really p***ed me off!’ Dancing On Ice judge Jason Gardiner reveals curt response he got from Phillip Schofield after he confronted TV host over affair with younger This Morning colleague

Jason Gardiner claims he received an abrupt response from Phillip Schofield when the Dancing On Ice judge questioned the former This Morning host over his affair with a younger colleague.

Television presenter Phillip, 61, was dropped by ITV and his talent agency YMU after he admitted to the Mail he’d had an ‘unwise but not illegal relationship’ with a much younger runner on This Morning.

And Jason, who had seen Phil with the runner on the Dancing On Ice set, said he first started to hear talk of the relationship in 2020, when Phillip came out as gay.

The speculation prompted Jason to send Phillip a message on Twitter. 

He explained to The Sun: ‘I went into a bit of a tailspin.

Claims: Jason Gardiner received an abrupt response from Phillip Schofield when the Dancing On Ice judge questioned the former This Morning host over his affair with a younger colleague

Spotted: Jason, who had seen Phil with the runner on the Dancing On Ice set, said he first started to hear talk of the relationship in 2020, when Phillip came out as gay

‘I said, “I know this is a very difficult moment for you and I support you in your decision to come out, but I also feel that I need to ask you about certain rumours that are going around online and are you aware of them?”.’

Jason claims Phillip replied with one single word: ‘Seriously?’

The Australian choreographer added: ‘That was it. It was very dismissive and that made me uneasy because I thought, “I’ve reached out to you very authentically”, and it kind of really p***ed me off.’

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Phillip for comment. 

It comes after Phillip broke his silence over claims he could make a comeback on TalkTV following his exit from This Morning.

He left the show after admitting to an affair with a younger man which he branded ‘ill-advised but not illegal’.

However Andy Barr, CEO of 10 Yetis Digital, claimed Phillip could return to the profession in the future, and on Saturday the TV expert told the Daily Star: ‘TalkTV could be the career rebuilding platform that Schofield needs right now.

‘If the current media spotlight reveals no new allegations then this is entirely recoverable for him and TalkTV could be the perfect place for him to start again in a high profile media environment.’

Host: Phillip presented Dancing On Ice alongside Holly Willoughby before he was dropped from ITV (pictured in February)

Screen star: Australian choreographer Jason was a judge on Dancing On Ice on and off from 2006 to 2019 

TalkTV is the home of presenters like Piers Morgan and Jeremy Kyle, and the former publicly sympathised with Phillip on social media following his departure from the show. 

However, a legal representative for Phillip told The Mirror that the presenter was not planning on joining TalkTV, saying: ‘Absolutely not as far as I know.’

In a recent interview with the BBC, Phillip said he believed his career was ‘over’ and he had ‘lost everything’ after admitting he had lied about his relationship with a younger man on This Morning.

‘I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart,’ he told the publication. ‘What am I going to do with my days? I see nothing ahead of me but blackness, sadness regret, remorse and guilt. I did something very wrong, and then I lied about it consistently.’

He said the criticism he’s faced since admitting the affair has had a ‘catastrophic effect’, adding: ‘Do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am. I have lost everything.’

In the interviews, Schofield, who was also dropped by his talent agency YMU after his admission to the Mail about the ‘unwise but not illegal relationship’, said he was ‘utterly broken and ashamed’.

Schofield told the BBC that the young man, who worked as a runner for a short period on This Morning, was 20 when he first had any kind of sexual contact with him.

He told The Sun they had become friends but in 2017 – three years before he came out as gay and separated from wife Stephanie Lowe after 27 years – ‘something happened that just changed it’.

There was ‘a consensual moment’ in Schofield’s dressing room after a show and ‘it was mutual’.

He said he did not have a ‘love affair’ with the man and that ‘it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends, we were mates’. 

Speaking out: It comes after Phillip broke his silence on claims he could ‘rebuild his presenting career through TalkTV’ after This Morning scandal on Saturday 

He said ‘it wasn’t feelings’ he was getting but it was ‘more like mates: excitement’. He added: ‘I was really struggling with my sexuality at that time in the build up to what happened.’ The pair only had ‘five or six romantic encounters’ over a period of around six months.

He said they met at Schofield’s apartment in south-east London only once after he phoned the young man to invite him over for a beer.

He also denied using ITV money to pay for taxis for the man, saying: ‘I don’t have an ITV account.’

Schofield said he had ‘no excuse’ for what happened, ‘no one did anything wrong apart from me’ and ‘I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career’.

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