My girls helped back from the edge me step

Schofield's despair after TV scandal

- MARK JEFFERIES

PHILLIP Schofield breaks down in tears on his desert island TV show as he reveals how his daughters stopped him ending his life after leaving This Morning.

Schofield, 62, tells how dark his life became after lying about his "unwise, but not illegal" affair with a junior male staff member on the show.

On his return to the small screen on Channel 5 next week, Schofield says Molly, 31, and Ruby, 28, helped him "take a step back from the edge".

He sobs: "In the last 18 months it got as dark as it is possible to get.

"A year ago I got so, so close. I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready.

"Molly and Ruby were looking after me at the time and Molly said: 'Do you imagine what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Can you imagine what would happen, what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?'