- stephen mackintosh
- entertainment reporter
image source, Getty Images
Dr Lange, who also appeared as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, left This Morning in 2021.
TV personality Dr Ranji Singh said the culture on This Morning was “not good for people’s mental health”.
ITV’s daytime show has had a tumultuous year after losing both hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.
Dr Lange left the show in 2021 and later said: “The culture on This Morning has become toxic.”
ITV’s chief executive previously said he was “not aware” of allegations of harmful culture on the show.
Schofield left the series in May following reports of a falling out with Willoughby. A week after his resignation, he admitted to having had an affair with his younger colleague.
Willoughby returned to the show, but left in October. The program is currently facilitated by a guest presenter.
image source, Getty Images
Willoughby and Schofield left the ITV daytime show earlier this year.
At the time of the Scofield scandal that dominated headlines, some former staff members, including Dr. Lange, expressed broader concerns about the toxic working environment they say they experienced on the show.
“Some days [I had] I finished my night shift and went straight to the studio and did something because I loved it so much,” he said.
“Then I was also active behind the scenes because I was passionate about a lot of the values that we were running across the channel, like diversity and pride and anti-bullying.”
However, Dr. Lange left the show two years ago. “It really hurt when it went away,” he said.
Although he is a television personality and a children’s doctor, Dr. Lange has always suffered from imposter syndrome.
“I felt like I was being bullied.”
“When you lose something really important, you feel sad about it, right? So I think that sadness will always remain for a while.
“For me, it’s a culture that has developed in many ways about how people are treated and made to feel, and it hasn’t been good for people’s mental health.”
She added: “There were times when I felt like I was being bullied.
“And, you know, I’ve been a mental health ambassador, an anti-bullying ambassador for this channel. It’s my job to take care of people. It’s my job to say something and say, ‘Look. The situation is completely not right, and now’ we need to do something about this.”
internal investigation
Asked if he had spoken to Schofield or Willoughby, he said: “Not for a long time, but I don’t think it would really be that way.”
ITV has been asked to comment on Dr Lange’s latest comments.
Chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall responded to claims in June that workplaces were “toxic”, saying the program “doesn’t allow for such things” and that “the vast majority of people working there ” employees are “very enthusiastic, very motivated,” he added.
Mrs Carolyn told the House of Commons committee that she had “called for an internal investigation” when Dr Lange made the complaint, which did happen but “was not upheld”.
