PHILLIP SCHOFIELD opened up on the tragic loss of his father on This Morning during a viewer phone-in with agony aunt Deirdre Sanders.
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield chaired a phone-in segment on Wednesday’s This Morning as they encouraged viewers who have struggled during lockdown to get in touch. During the segment, a caller revealed she was experiencing loneliness after the death of her husband and Phillip revealed his mother has struggled with loneliness since she lost her husband in 2008.
The topic of today’s ITV phone-in with agony aunt Deirdre Sanders was ‘loneliness in lockdown’.
One viewer named Julie got in touch and revealed she’s struggled to cope during the pandemic, especially after her husband passed away last year.
Julie explained she works for the NHS but has been shielding since the beginning of March.
The caller has spent lockdown on her own as her children no longer live with her.
Phillip Schofield opened up on the loss of his dad (Image: ITV)
Phillip Schofield empathised with Julie
Phillip Schofield empathised with Julie Phillip emphasised with Julie and spoke about his own experiences with his mum, Pat Schofield following the death of his father.
He began: “Julie, we lost our dad in 2008 and my mum will be watching now, this will make her cry.
“But she feels exactly the same. It never goes away and she still feels lonely.
“But she surrounds herself with family when she can, it’s why these are such bizarre times.”
Phillip Schofield revealed his mother still feels lonely
Phillip Schofield revealed his mother still feels lonely “After lockdown, when things begin to get back to normal, it will get a bit better,” he continued.
“You’ll always miss him. It’s always going to be that big hole in your heart but it will get better.
“Once you can start to see your friends a bit more, once you can maybe talk to your work colleagues and maybe you can go out and form a sort of social life again.”
“All I can say on behalf of my mum is she still gets lonely,” he added.
“But she surrounds herself with people and that part of it gets better and it will get better after this.”
Phillip’s father Brian died in 2008 aged 72 after a battle with heart problems.
The ITV presenter shared details about his father’s death during a phone-in segment on the show back in 2014.
“My dad died in 2008, he’d been poorly for a long time,” Phillip said.
“We knew it was going to happen, but when it finally did happen we heard from the hospital, who said it’s incredible how many people, and it is this extraordinary physical thing that a person who is near the end of their life who without even knowing maybe, waits until family have left the room and then they go quietly on their own.
“And that’s tough you know, that’s tough, he tried to sneak away, but we caught him.
“You can’t blame yourself, you know it’s funny I still, obviously, find it tough to talk after all these years.”
