Jane McDonald replaces Phillip Schofield as host of ITV’s British Soap Awards
"This is just a dream come true!" says Jane
Jane McDonald has been announced as host of the upcoming British Soap Awards on ITV.
The Cruising with Jane McDonald star will front the televised bash at the The Lowry in Salford on 3 June.
She replaces outgoing host Phillip Schofield.
Schofield, who has hosted The British Soap Awards since 2008, stepped down from the role last week, as well as his long-term This Morning presenting gig, after publicly confessing to an “unwise, but not illegal” relationship with a younger colleague.
“Everyone knows how much I love my soaps!” – Jane McDonald
Ahead of hosting the awards, McDonald enthused: “Oh my god… Everyone knows how much I love my soaps. This year I’ve been honoured to be mentioned in Corrie, EastEnders and Emmerdale… So this is just a dream come true!”
The singer furthermore added: “I can’t wait to see all our wonderful soap nominees and celebrate all their hard work with them. Roll on the awards. I can’t wait!”
The categories for the public voted awards will close at 5pm tomorrow.
For full details on categories and voting, visit BritishSoapAwards.tv.
“I met the man when he was a teenager” – Phillip Schofield
Schofield addressed the controversial past relationship that has derailed his career in a press statement issued last Friday (26 May 2023).
The statement in part read: “I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning. Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.”
Schofield came out publicly as gay in 2020.
He continued: “I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.”
Schofield reportedly first met the colleague he’d later have an affair with during a speaking engagement at the teenager’s school when he was 15
The statement continued: “I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me. I will reflect on my very bad judgement in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it.”