Fallen UK TV host Phillip Schofield is "broken and ashamed" amid revelations of an affair with a much younger colleague, but insists he is not a "groomer".
Schofield, 61, left his high profile role at ITV's This Morning amid rumours of a fall-out with co-host Holly Willoughby.
It's since come to light he had an affair with a younger colleague, a person he helped get a job at network as a teenager. He said the encounters started when the man was 20.
He lied to ITV when they investigated rumours of the affair.
Speaking to The Sun, Schofield said he did not groom the young man.
"There are accusations of all sorts of things. It never came across that way (an abuse of power) because we’d become mates. I don’t know about that," he said.
"But of course I understand that there will be a massive judgment, but bearing in mind, I have never exercised that anywhere else."
He apologised to the man and his family.
"It has brought the greatest misery into his totally innocent life, his totally innocent family, his totally innocent friends," he said. "It has brought the greatest grief to them."
The affair took place before Schofield came out as gay and was still married to his wife.
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