Phillip Schofield replaced by Jane McDonald as host of British Soap Awards after presenter left ITV

1 June 2023, 11:03

Jane McDonald will replace Phillip Schofield as host of the British Soap Awards, ITV has announced.

The former cruise singer will replace embattled Schofield at the bash on June 6 - a fortnight after Schofield resigned from ITV after admitting to an "unwise, but not illegal" affair with a young male colleague on This Morning and lying about it.

In the announcement on Twitter, the awards confirmed: "We're pleased to announce our host for The British Soap Awards 2023...the fabulous Jane McDonald!.

"As a super huge soap fan she's in for a treat as we celebrate all our wonderful soaps in a star studded glittering event that airs this Tuesday at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX."

The replacement comes after revelations that ITV have instructed a barrister to carry out an external review of the facts following Phillip Schofield's statement and departure from This Morning, chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall has said.

He was subsequently dropped by his management and as an ambassador for the Prince's Trust charity too.

In a letter sent to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, DCMS Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage and Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, Dame Carolyn McCall said: "You will have seen the significant media coverage concerning Phillip Schofield.

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"As you would expect we take the matter extremely seriously and have reviewed our own records over the weekend.

"These show that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in late 2019/early 2020 ITV investigated.

"Both parties were questioned then and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours, as did Phillip's then agency YMU. In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on the This Morning and wider Daytime team and were not provided with, and did not find any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.

"Given the ongoing rumours, we continued to ask questions of both parties, who both continued to deny the rumours, including as recently as this month.

"There has been a lot of inaccuracy in the reporting so I thought it would be useful to set out some facts."