Dr Ranj Singh says his career lost work since he accused This Morning of bullying and questions if he should have spoken out at all
Dr Ranj Singh believes accusing The Morning of having a ‘toxic’ culture of bullying and discrimination has negatively impacted his career.
The TV doctor, 44, who left the show in 2022 after 10 years, spoke out against the ITV daytime show in the midst of the Phillip Schofield scandal, in which the host revealed he had an affair with a much younger colleague.
ITV boss Dame Carolyn later said an external review conducted after a complaint made by Dr Ranj found ‘no evidence of bullying or discrimination’.
Dr Ranj has now reflected on The This Morning storm on BBC’s Imposter Syndrome.
Insisting he felt ‘bullied at times’, he said: ‘For me it was the culture that had developed, in many ways about the way people were being treated and being made to feel and it wasn’t good for people’s mental health.
Dr Ranj Singh believes accusing The Morning of having a ‘toxic’ culture of bullying and discrimination has negatively impacted his career
The TV doctor, 44, who left the show in 2022 after 10 years, spoke out against the ITV show in the midst of the Phillip Schofield scandal (pictured Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby)
‘The only real difference is when I think to myself should I have just shut up? Should I have just shut up and got on with it like everyone else.’
When asked whether he thought the conversation impacted his career, he said: ‘I think so.
‘You know I was a mental health ambassador, anti-bullying ambassador on this channel, whose job it is to look after people. It’s my job to say something and say, “look, things aren’t quite right and now we need to do something about this”.’
Dr Ranj said he hasn’t spoken to Phillip or Holly Willoughby in a ‘long time’. Both hosts have resigned from the show.
The presenter added there was a ‘grieving process’ when he left This Morning after a decade.
He said: ‘When I wasn’t working on This Morning anymore, having done it for 10 years and some days, you know, really invested myself into it and loved it and some days done a night shift and gone straight into the studio and done something because I loved it so much.
‘And then I was doing stuff behind the scenes as well because I felt passionately about so many of the values that we were doing across the channel. So diversity and pride stuff, you know, anti-bullying stuff. When it went away it was really painful.
‘When you lose something you really care about you grieve for it right? So I think there’s always going to be that sense of grief there for a while.’
ITV boss Dame Carolyn later said an external review conducted following a complaint made by Dr Ranj found ‘no evidence of bullying or discrimination’
Dr Ranj said he hasn’t spoken to Phillip or Holly Willoughby in a ‘long time’. Both have resigned from the show
Dr Ranj added: ‘I’m really lucky I’ve got other stuff, and I’ve got people that pick me up and put me back together again.’
ITV boss Dame Carolyn confirmed in June the show had two complaints about bullying or harassment in five years which were ‘both taken very seriously’, including from the show’s former resident doctor Dr Ranj, who raised concerns about ‘bullying and discrimination’ and afterwards felt like he was ‘managed out’ for whistleblowing.
Talking about the allegations, she said: ‘It deeply disappoints me but we do not recognise that at This Morning, we have tangible evidence to tell you where the vast majority of people at daytime at This Morning are extremely engaged and very motivated.’
The ITV boss later added: ‘When you use those words about our culture, we don’t recognise that at our culture, it doesn’t mean we don’t take it seriously.’
Dr Ranj – who is now the resident doctor on the BBC’s Morning Live – previously said he thought ‘long and hard’ before weighing in on the scandal which engulfed ITV but decided to speak out.
Familiar face: Dr Ranj worked on the show as a resident medical expert alongside Schofield and his co-host Holly Willoughby for six years before stepping down in 2022
The television medic previously confirmed that he had taken concerns about the behaviour of editors and senior producers to ITV and had then seen his screen time drop
In a lengthy Instagram post, Dr Ranj Singh said: ‘I’ve thought long and hard about posting this. If I’m honest, I really wish I didn’t have to. But I’ve got to clarify some things that have ben reported about me, and in light of recent events, I finally feel like I might be believed…
‘To the journalists who have offered me money this weekend to share my experience of working at This Morning, thank you but it would go against my principles to “sell my story” – especially about something like this.
‘However, given that ITV have commented on my departure, I feel it’s only fair for me to do so too to avoid any further conjecture.
I was on the show for 10 years and I genuinely loved and valued working there. However over time I grew increasingly worried about how things were behind-the-scenes and how people, including myself, were being treated.
‘I didn’t know the truth about what was going on with Philip [sic], but I do know the issues with TM go far beyond him. It takes more than one person to create a culture.’
The television medic confirmed that he had taken concerns about the behaviour of editors and senior producers to ITV and had then seen his screentime drop.
‘So I did what I thought was right and, as ITV confirmed last night, I raised my concerns with Emma Gormley – especially given that my job is to look after people’s wellbeing and I had been heavily involved in diversity, anti-bullying and mental health projects across the channel.
‘I then found myself being used less and less,’ the medic said online. He added that he had felt ‘managed out’ and slammed the culture at the show as ‘toxic’.
‘I even took my concerns directly to the top of ITV: the culture at This Morning has become toxic, no longer aligned with ITV values, and I felt like because I whistle-blew I was managed out.
‘But as history and experience have taught us, things like bullying and discrimination are very hard to prove, particularly in hindsight and when the “people in power” control the narrative. As we’ve seen, no review of investigation is foolproof.
‘Still, I was assured that certain things were going to be addressed and changes made.
‘I haven’t worked on the show since… and I am not the only one who has spoken up or experienced similar.’
Imposter Syndrome is available to stream exclusively on iPlayer from 6am on Friday 15 December.
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