Phillip Schofield feels like a "victim of hate" amid his affair scandal.
Phillip Schofield feels like a victim of hate
The 61-year-old star has daughters Molly, 30, and 27-year-old Ruby with now-estranged wife Stephanie Lowe but came out as gay in February 2020 and after quitting his long-running role as host on 'This Morning' last week, confirmed that he had had an "unwise but not illegal" sexual relationship with a younger male colleague but now feels as if he has been the target of "non-factual gossip."
Speaking in his first televised interview since he quit ITV, he told the BBC: "I spoke to my therapist about this because I had a wonderful marriage, have a wonderful marriage. Not brilliant right now, but [I have] an incredibly supportive wife with two beautiful children, who had the most amazing time as a family. Us four is who we are.
"And something started to trip me up and I couldn't figure out what it was. My therapist said I could become aware and things change. Over a period of time, it was a kernel it grew bigger and bigger and bigger until I was mentally struggling. Deeply mentally struggling. And my relationship with my colleague coincided with that moment. That is not an excuse, I make no excuse. I think this interview is not about other [gay] experiences. It had got to the point where I weighed nine and a half stone, it was utterly torturing me. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat and I wanted to be brave.
"I'd spoken through it with the family, who have all been incredible."
"I feel a victim of hate, after the event. And I think probably there will be a lot of people watching this thinking 'How dare you?'. It would be easier for me to say that I don't feel like a victim. But what I feel a victim of is spun areas of non-factual information of gossip and nastiness. I don't look anymore, I'm not in television anymore. I'm glad that it's not a lie anymore but if I could've taken the whole brunt of this without an innocent man being hauled alongside then fair play. But the fact that an innocent man, his friends, his family, his association is questioned because you can say anything online. "
The former 'Dancing on Ice' host - who is thought to have met the young colleague when he was a teenager but insisted that no physical activity occurred between them until the young man was over the age of consent - went on to add that had he had been supported by a "very prominent" public figure and insisted that sexual attraction in different age groups does exist as he claimed the core issue is "predominant homophobia."
He added: "It's been a very, very fine mesh of friends and it's interesting to see who came through and it's also interesting to see the new friends that I've made because there are a lot of people in my world who have reached out and been amazing. One very prominent public figure phoned me and said 'I wanted to check that you were okay. I have never seen such homophobia in my life.'
"If it was a heterosexual relationship then it would have been a bit of nudge-nudge, wink-wink but if it's a gay relationship then suddenly it raises eyebrows and it's wrong. People do find each other attractive in different age groups, it does happen. But it's the mere fact that this is so gigantic, and I appreciate the workplace and the history but it's the fact that it it is so massive is predominantly homophobia."
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