Morninggate - Daily Mail: What did ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall know about Schofield scandal?

Story from Daily Mail:

As chief executive of ITV, Dame Carolyn McCall has a role that spans all aspects of the business. But she once admitted to having a soft spot for Human Resources, or HR, the department responsible for hiring and firing.

Or, as Ms McCall said: 'It's about developing people, spotting the gaps, spotting the problems, exiting people when that's necessary but in a really humane way.'

Former ITV stars Jeremy Kyle and Piers Morgan might beg to differ, both having been given the heave-ho by a woman who behaved more like the Grim Reaper than Mother Teresa.

And last week Phillip Schofield became the latest household name to leave the company on Ms McCall's watch. If ever a man could be said to have departed with a bang rather than a whimper it was the silver-haired sidekick of Holly Willoughby on the This Morning sofa.

After a month of briefing and counter-briefing by representatives of the divided camps, Schofield's career blew up spectacularly on Friday when he was forced to admit to the Daily Mail that he lied about his affair with a junior colleague more than three decades younger.

In his resignation statement, Schofield described the liaison as 'unwise but not illegal'. Given that the younger man was just 15 when they met, 'unwise' doesn't begin to cover it.

Cue his immediate departure from ITV and his resignation as host of this Saturday's British Soap Awards, a ceremony he had anchored for 17 years. Carolyn McCall has so far managed to dodge much of the flak over Schofield's resignation, but the departure of one of ITV's biggest stars and speculation over whether his co-presenter Holly Willoughby will ever return to host This Morning have triggered questions about Ms McCall's future, too.

Her supporters at the increasingly crisis-torn ITV, – and, from the people I've talked to, they are dwindling – respond by arguing that such matters are the preserve of Kevin Lygo, the director of programmes (incidentally, someone with whom Ms McCall is said to have a strained relationship).

But on Monday Kelvin MacKenzie, former editor of The Sun, muddied the waters around Ms McCall and Schofield further. He tweeted about a so-called secret meeting three years ago, which he says was held with executives from The Sun over Schofield and his sexuality.

MacKenzie claims Ms McCall was at the meeting and, as the Mail went to press last night, ITV had yet to come back with a comment.

It is certainly true that Ms McCall, who is said to work 14-hour days, has taken a very hands-on approach to managing talent in the past. She was deeply involved in the exit of Piers Morgan from Good Morning Britain in March 2021, for example. After referring to Meghan Markle as 'Princess Pinocchio', Morgan refused to apologise for the implication that the Duchess of Sussex was a liar.

While Kevin Lygo was the man who showed him the door, Morgan later discovered that, less than 24 hours before he was fired, the Duchess had written to Carolyn McCall. And Morgan does not forgive or forget easily.

At the weekend he tweeted: 'Re veracity of ITV management denials, worth recalling that I was forced out of my ITV job after Meghan Markle wrote to CEO, Dame Carolyn McCall, demanding I be fired for disbelieving her lies.

'Dame Carolyn denies this had anything to do with my departure, which is also a lie.'

While the ITV boss has not responded directly to Morgan's latest broadside, she did give an interview shortly after his departure denying that the letter had made any difference: 'I can say it had absolutely no effect on that situation. None.'

Suffice to say, the turbulent events of recent days are far from the first controversy during the five-year tenure of a woman who made her name in the City as chief executive of The Guardian.

Indeed, The Guardian and its achingly woke values are imprinted in her DNA. When she arrived at ITV, for example, she apparently made it clear to anyone who would listen that she loathed the Jeremy Kyle Show, which had run for 14 series.

With an audience regularly in excess of one million, the programme was the most popular in ITV's daytime schedule, but its tabloid format – based on confrontations between guests attempting to resolve their dramatic personal problems – was anathema to the high-minded Ms McCall.

After the suicide of a guest in 2019, which many blamed on the show, she saw her chance. 'Given the gravity of recent events we have decided to end production of The Jeremy Kyle Show,' she said.

'The Jeremy Kyle Show has had a loyal audience and has been made by a dedicated production team for 14 years, but now is the right time for the show to end.' It was a different story with the glossier Love Island.

Despite the tragic suicide of its host Caroline Flack a year later, which followed the deaths of two former contestants – both of whom killed themselves – the show, which attracted 2.4 million viewers last summer, was allowed to remain on air.

Perhaps these tragedies have informed a regime at ITV that has all the trappings of millennial self-indulgence. Under Ms McCall, the firm launched a series of 'self-care' classes for staff including origami lessons and 'racial fluency' courses.

The broadcaster has also launched a range of networking groups welcoming women, gay workers, those with disabilities, and minority ethnic staff.

There are no groups for white, heterosexual men, however, an issue that has been the subject of complaints in some quarters.

Dame Carolyn Julia McCall was born and brought up in Bangalore in India and Singapore, where her Scottish father ran a Far East division of a US textiles firm.

She moved to England when she was a teenager and after a convent education studied history and politics at Kent University where she met her entrepreneur husband Peter. They have three children.

After a brief and unhappy spell as a secondary school teacher, she did a Masters in politics at the University of London, a qualification that landed her an ad sales job at The Guardian before she worked her way through the ranks to the top.

From there she moved on to EasyJet and her seven years at the helm of the budget airline were so successful she was made a Dame for services to aviation. A multi-millionaire following a £5million golden goodbye from EasyJet, things have gone less well at ITV.

Her predecessor Alan Crozier presided over a quadrupling of the share price during his seven-year reign but – under Ms McCall –shares in the firm have fallen from £1.70 when she arrived in 2018 to 71p yesterday, a 58 per cent drop.

Not that this performance is reflected in her salary, which last year was £3.54million, up by £240,000 on 2021, a 6.7 per cent pay rise. Most ITV staff had to content themselves with a 3 per cent rise.

While the gloss may have worn off her business career somewhat at ITV, she still swears by a mantra borrowed from Renaissance painter and sculptor Michelangelo: 'Greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and reach it.'

Given the events of recent days, perhaps Dame Carolyn should aim no higher than saving ITV from any further humiliation.