The text message Phillip Schofield sent to Holly Willoughby (who hosts You Bet! tonight) just hours before his departure from ITV was announced has been ‘revealed’.

Phillip started hosting This Morning in 2002, being joined by Holly in 2009. However, after news of Phillip’s brother being charged with child sex offences broke, it was announced he had stepped down.

But during his return to TV in Cast Away, Phillip claimed he had actually been sacked by the network.

Phillip said his agent had called him to inform him he had been “let go from This Morning”.

The agent told him: “It’s done. You’re not going back on Monday,” claiming the decision was made because of “the publicity”.

Just days later, Phillip resigned from all ITV shows after admitting to having an affair with a younger male colleague.

Phillip spoke about being sacked from ITV on Cast Away (Credit: Channel 5)

Phillip Schofield sent final text to Holly Willoughby

And now a source has ‘revealed’ the message he sent to his once best friend after his sacking.

According to the Mirror, Phillip sent a WhatsApp to Holly the night before his departure from ITV was announced, telling her: “You brought me down.”

The source alleged: “As well as saying she had brought him down, he said he couldn’t believe his TV sister would do this to him.”

They added that Phillip asked her to share a statement in support of him amid the ongoing speculation they had fallen out. However, the source went on to claim: “He feels it was a simple gesture that might have saved his job and her refusal to do so effectively finished him off. Believing in the TV chemistry was the bedrock of the This Morning format.”

It is reported that Holly told Phillip ITV had asked her to not publicly respond and she “didn’t want to feed the narrative”.

Holly reportedly said she didn’t know about Timothy’s crimes, while Phillip claims he was ‘open and honest’ (Credit: ITV)

Phillip was ‘open and honest’ about brother’s crime

During his Channel 5 show, Phillip said he had been “open and honest” about his brother’s crimes.

He said: “I had to go through everything with the hierarchy at ITV. The full entire story so that they knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. The full story. I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother. I was fired for the bad publicity, for someone else’s crime.”

However, at the time, reports emerged claiming that Holly knew nothing about Timothy Schofield’s arrest and trial. The inside source begs to differ, though, alleging that Phillip told Holly a month after his brother’s arrest in 2021.

“There is a narrative that she was blindsided by news of his brother’s court case and was furious with him for keeping her in the dark about it. But that narrative couldn’t be further from the truth,” the source claimed.

ED! has contacted reps for Holly and Phillip for comment on this story.