Phillip Schofield's friendship with Holly Willoughby is 'a scripted reality show' | Nigel Pauley

Is Philip Scofield about to lose his job as the presenter of one of Daytime TV's most successful shows? Just a quick warning that there are some flashing images coming up. We want to want to shock you now. So Scofield and Holly Willoughby are said to have fallen out, though he claims his fellow presenter is his rock. Phil only returned to the show recently. He had had time off air after his younger brother Timothy was convicted of 11 sexual offenses involving a child. Holly and Phil, of course, have also had their own fair share of controversies over the years. I am joined now by Fleet Street showbiz legend Nigel Pauli.

Nigel, thank you very, very much. Do you think this is the game up now for Philip Scofield? Is Holly Willoughby going to cut him loose? Things aren't looking very good, Patrick. Funnily enough, on television, what you see is not always what the reality is. You know, we have scripted reality. And I would say that the Holly and Phil love story for the last 14 years has been a scripted reality show. In that you don't have to get on with the people you work with. I'm sure you get on with everyone at your television station.

That's not always the case. However, they are protected by the management and PR agents. Once that protection has gone, which it appears to have happened with Philip now, it's a downward slope. I can only say that I was the reporter who wrote the story where it was briefed against Anthony Eternal that she was known as Princess Tippi Toast. Very quickly ended after that. We had Fern Britton. We had Richard and Judy.

All of them have been in daytime, television. All of them have been very popular. And suddenly once that popularity has gone within the building, and it seems very much that ITV are weighing up now that Holly, Alison Hammond could be a better partnership. No, indeed. And Holly, I think, has had to put up with a heck of a lot from Philip over the years. And certainly one thing that we definitely can talk about is this, his big coming out element of it. She was put in a rather awkward situation there, I think.

And I just wonder whether or not she realizes that she might be better on her own. Is he worth all this drama? And that's before we get on to, you know, Qgate for the Queen's funeral. Yeah, I mean, if you recall, when Ant was otherwise engaged for Ima Slabchik a couple of years ago, she stepped in. And that was the first thing she'd really done on her own. She's always been in Phil's shadow. But the thing is, this was a carefully crafted partnership. Both had the same agents, both had the same PRs, and they were put together as like the Royal Couple of Daytime Television.

But Holly left, it was then called James Grant Management about three years ago, set up on her own. And ever since then, there's been friction because that's the reality. The reality is, not all you see on television is truth and is fact. And what's that way over the years? They crafted how close these people were, whether they spoke when they left the television cameras. Who knows, is for them to say. But they have had face problems. Philip has been groomed for stardom.

I use that phrase carefully. Since he was very young and a day-tie, a children's presenter at the BBC, he's been carefully guided. Everything has been protected about him. Bad stories were put away. I mean, in my young days as a Fleet Street journalist, our reporter spent weeks and weeks outside his house in Chiswick when he was getting married because there was some incredulity that he was getting married back in those days. Since then, he has gone through many, many difficulties, but they've been put over. But the key thing in the stories coming out is that Martin Fressel, who is the editor of the programme, the big chief, he seems to have suddenly lost faith or lost that protective thing and is looking elsewhere.

That is quite significant because Martin has always been the man who believed in this partnership. And Philip is not any younger. Females, unfortunately, pass their cell by date in television terms, much younger than men. But Phil has been at the top for a long, long time. And just occasionally, you're Star Wains. He's had more than 15 minutes. He's had 35 years or whatever.

Nigel, is there any truth to the rumours that the person that we see on television with Philip's girlfriend might be very, very different to the person that we see off-screen, i.e. that supposedly he's not always the nicest chap? I think you have to put in the fact that there are pressures. I mean, I've been backstage on many television programmes, and I can assure you, most of the hosts I've seen are nothing like the smiley, cuddly figures that they are on television. You're accepted, you're the same off-screen as on-screen. But you are in the minority. And I would doubt very much whether Phil, or indeed Holly, or indeed Ant, or indeed Deck, is always the smiley figure you see in front of the cameras.

It just isn't the case. Philip was a complicated character. He lived a sort of sad life for many years. As you say, he came out a couple of years ago. That must have been a big pressure for him. At the time, being gay was not good in television. Let's give him credit for how difficult that must have been.

But it did come out. You know, he's overcome many difficulties. The family issue he had, if you were close to your colleague, I mean, this is what has meant to have caused this row. If you were that close to your colleague, and you were going off for a while, and your brother was going to be, you know, fairly prominent court case, I think you might just mention it to them if you had any respect for them. Or whether you were that close. You wouldn't just disappear and then let them read it on Twitter, or on the newspaper. That's why I'm saying that relationship appears to us on camera as being very close.

I would suggest behind the cameras and behind the scenes, that's never really been the case. All right, Nigel, look, thank you very, very much. Great to have you on the show, as always. That's Nigel Paulie there, Fleet Street Showbiz.

GB news, Phillip Schofield, Holly Willoughby, ITV, This Morning, Show Biz