Phillip Schofield’s younger brother, Timothy, who was sentenced to 12 years behind bars in 2023, was diagnosed with a serious health condition just six months before the sibling’s late mother, Pat

Phillip Schofield admitted he was ‘shocked’ when his mum and brother were diagnosed with the same life-threatening health condition.

The 62-year-old, who made a bombshell return to TV last month in Channel 5’s Cast Away, disowned his brother, Timothy, 54, when he was sentenced to 12 years in jail last year after he was convicted of sexually abusing a vulnerable teenage boy over a three-year period.

However, opening up about his sibling and his late mother previously, Phil – who announced his mother’s death on Monday night – explained the “family sat down together” when both Timothy and the brothers’ mum, Pat, were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes within six months of each other.

Speaking to Health Awareness, Phil revealed: “My brother and mother are both Type 1 diabetics and have been for the last 25 years, so it is something that as a family we are very used to. If either of them have a hypo (a Hypoglycaemic episode which occurs when blood glucose levels drop, usually below 4 mmol/L), we can recognise the signs and we know what to do. My Mum goes particularly bonkers when she goes low, so when she starts talking nonsense we know what’s happening.”

He added: “My brother was first to be diagnosed and he had an unquenchable thirst for fizzy drink, which was very unlike him. That continued for a few days, he was acting completely out of character. So we took him to the doctors and he was very quickly diagnosed. Then six months later my mum was diagnosed in the same way.”

Explaining there was no history of diabetes in the family, Phil concluded: “My brother was very young at the time of diagnosis, probably in his late teens. He had always been very healthy and active. He is also seven years younger than me so it was a shock, as far as we were aware there was no history of the disorder in the family.”

Type 1 diabetes causes the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood to become too high and happens when the body cannot produce a hormone called insulin, which controls blood glucose. It is not linked to being overweight, as is the case with type 2 diabetes, and requires daily medication.

Phil speaks about Timothy on his Cast Away show, claiming he was sacked by ITV over his brother’s sexual assault conviction. In an extraordinary final episode of his new Channel 5 series, the former This Morning star insists that despite saying in a statement at the time he had resigned from ITV, he was actually forced out by bosses.

Poking a fire on the beach, Phil says: “What people don’t realise is I wasn’t fired from This Morning when I admitted lying. It was before, because of someone I used to call brother. I was fired for the bad publicity, for someone else’s crime.”

In May 2023, Timothy Schofield was jailed for 12 years for sexually abusing a boy. TV host Phillip took time off-screen during the court case and left This Morning soon after amid front-page stories saying he had fallen out with co-host and former best friend Holly Willoughby. There were also revelations about an affair he had with a younger male colleague, which then led to him resigning completely from ITV.

Speaking about Phil’s claims he was sacked because of his brother, an ITV source exclusively told the Mirror: “Phillip’s new comments are simply untrue, he is lying again. We stood by him through his brother’s court case and he then stepped away when things became too much. There was a lot going on and some relationships on the programme had become untenable as was reported at the time.

“He then admitted himself he had been lying about an affair and he resigned from ITV altogether. We didn’t sack him, he lied to us and then he resigned, there is not much else to say.”