In April 2021, when The Mail on Sunday attempted to publish information on the unrest among the This Morning behind-the-scenes crew, ITV hired a lawyer to suppress the story, The Mail reported.

The broadcaster said there was no culture of fear and denied charges that its workplace was “toxic and unpleasant.”

Even Phillip Schofield, who was fired from the program last month, defended it on Monday by writing on Instagram: ‘This Morning IS the best show to work on, with the best people. In all the years I worked there, there was no toxicity.’

However, The Mail on Sunday reported that the nature of This Morning’s work culture was toxic and some workers felt the environment to be so distressing that they needed to seek therapy. This comes days after ITV announced it had begun an independent external probe to be performed by a senior barrister.

An ex-staff member has also brought up facing sexism.

This publication also revealed that a probe into This Morning’s editor Martin Frizell took place in 2019 when a senior female employee, a single mother, brought up his behavior with ITV officials. The channel reported that the investigation turned up no evidence.

Meanwhile, several former employees have shared horror stories with The Mail on Sunday.

One woman said: ‘I worked there for six years. I have felt a huge sense of relief this story has finally come out because it is about abuse of power and cover-ups.

‘I left This Morning with a financial payout and had to sign an NDA [non-disclosure agreement] to say I would not talk about the bullying and toxic blame culture that I endured there.

‘Fifteen years on, I still can’t watch the show, and even hearing the theme tune, it brings me out in a cold sweat. I won’t go into details, but my healing from years of hell – when I used to wish I would get run over by a bus on my walk from the office to the studio – starts and ends here with this simple acknowledgement that signing an NDA to cover up toxicity is not OK.’