Phillip Schofield

[Lilys]

Yes and Holly laying it on thick really didn’t help: “the silver haired man with a heart of gold”. Ok Holly we get it.

Can’t stand her either the squeaky prick.

 

[AmberSpyglass]

I don’t think his announcement will stop the majority of us here thinking he’s a big headed wanker, that’s why the thread’s here in the first place .

 

[Youtubegossip]

I'm hoping Ant Mcpartlin's wife holds out for her day in court in the divorce. She doesn't want to sign an NDA and good for her. She'll be minted either way but I bet she knows ALL THE GOSSIP about the ITV elite. All those post TV BAFTA parties at her and Ant's Chiswick pad....

This!

he’s obviously got some things he doesn’t want coming out which is why he’s so desperate to gag her. My first bet would be that his addiction wasn’t painkillers

 

[StephenTJackson]

This is the reason he wanted Rochelle over Amanda H , Amanda is popular and quite good ..he wanted an understudy...

Nobody likes Amanda Holden. She’s not a good presenter, she can’t even move her face.

 

[ChrissyPoo]

Firstly, I'm glad he's come out as gay. Even in this day and age, it is still a daunting thing to do.

But....

This was purely done as damage control. Difficult to do none the less, but he clearly felt he had no other choice. He needed something to get everyone back on side.

 

[Sln2404]

I wonder if he was close to being outed and it was forced?

 

[imaginedragon83]

I wasn’t referring to anyone in particular. More to the general population.
And I do believe in certain parts of the uk it is unfortunately still rife. Metropolitan cities fine. Smaller counties and countries not so much. I know people who have had to leave their small towns as they weren’t accepted at all.
Its not everyone’s experience but it is for some. I think Phil would have had a better experience being a rich,white, london, male in the media. But someone in a religious community in the highlands might not be. In some parts of the uk being a single mother is still shameful.

Anyway that’s a chat for a different thing.
Phil isn’t a nice man. Being gay doesn’t change that. Now he’s just a not nice gay man.

I work with a lady who absolutely disgusts me on a daily basis with her beliefs on certain topics. As everyone in the office was chatting about Phil's news today she piped up that it had to be a hoax, hes "too nice to be gay" and when I showed her the clip from this morning confirming it was indeed real, she said "the worlds gone mad, everybody is gay these days". The same woman told me that having gay people on tv should be banned, and when her nephew came out as bisexual she said he was obviously bullied into being bi. So yeah plenty of small minded people out there. I told her if my son came to me in years to come (hes 3) and told me he was gay I would support him and love him and do all I could to make sure hes happy and confident in his own skin....she looked at me with utter disgust.
I find it incredibly difficult working with her

 

[Youtubegossip]

Chris and Rosie Ramsey to present it. Would be hilarious

 

[JustMetotoday]

I think Ruth Is far more relatable than holly!

 

[Suzesnooze]

Years ago there was a tv presenter that got a court injunction against the media running a story about an affair he had had, ive always thought this was Philip

I was shocked when he got married as always assumed he was gay

 

[Oohthedrama]

Cough... damage control.... cough

 

[Instamoron]

I don’t know if you’re wanting to have a rhymey thread but I thought I’d try a new thread suggestion title:
Schofe has come out amid some speculation, but was it really just to protect his reputation?

 

[yankydoo]

I know it must have been very difficult for him but if I was his wife I would be devastated right now; what a waste of her time.

 

[Slacalis]

Having worked with and worked with others who have worked with Mr. Scofield I can confirm he is the most dismissive and arrogant human ever. Ig it's not in his interest then you are invisible and God help you of you take up any time with inane questions or asking of his opinion. Unfortunately Holly is very much the same and once they've both had a drink, the vitriol towards anyone none 'sleb or Instagrammable is horrible. Holly seems guided by Schofield but she is very good at being his wing-bish, I'm not convinced there is any beef with the 2 of them though, Holly has always been quite respectful of the fact she's there because he wanted her to be....

 

[Oohthedrama]

Exactly this!! How selfish of him to marry someone and have children knowing he was gay!

eh, it was a very different time though even 25/30 years ago, hate him all you want but he clearly didn’t want to be gay, he clearly does loves his wife.
He’s a dick but we don’t know what the reaction to being gay was back then I’m sure he wasn’t the only one trying to suppress his sexuality

 

[Basicbasic]

It's well Known he was in a relationship with itv crew member for years. He was obviously about to be outed. I don't buy any argument that he was scared to come out. He used steph to portray the perfect family image to further his career. You don't just wake up gay. You're either gay or straight. He's known all along. Steph is collateral damage. He's selfish.

 

[Youtubegossip]

Why does Philip get praised for coming out and being brave etc when being gay now isn't a big thing - especially in showbiz and especially in London...

I really hope his wife has known all along and was happy to go along with it or something and it's not something she's only just found out - she's the only one I've any sympathy for.

 

[Thistles]

Not really comfortable with the immense admiration, "so brave" etc. He would have been brave 30 years ago, but instead he choose to use a woman, who likely wasn't consenting just to be a "beard", whereas she went into things thinking it was a genuine romantic relationship. He has claimed the public narrative to distance it away from the bullying allegations, and made public with such fanfare something that today is so mundane. His poor wife is basically limited to showing how "supportive" she is. else she be accused on intolerance, despite her being lied to and used for public image because Schoff, couldn't be brave to come out, or at least not drag a woman into his insecurities like this.

Think this is something prominent LGB spokespeople need to have a word with themselves about, it's not right to marry someone of the opposite sex, to use them for public image, to have children etc when they believe the relationship is a genuine het one. Even if we could understand reasoning why he would have been scared to be himself openly at the time, doesn't make it right. He should have just quietly divorced his wife, and gave her some dignity, instead of splashing this on the media whilst still being married.

 

[Yel]

I cant stand that people are praising him for being brave for using his fireguard that's been kept for an emergency. It doesn't help anyone but himself.

 

[2xblended]

I wasn't planning to throw my hat in this ring but...

This was a marriage of convenience for the both of them, as she was his manager and this helped keep his career on track. It's perfectly possible for him to be gay and still have wanted children, so they both agreed to have them together. It seems (given the number of years they were together) that they were good companions in every other way, so it's a win-win for them both to have this marriage run and have dalliances on the side that they both agreed to (it explains him saying there were no secrets between him and his wife).

As for him acting during that interview, I'm not sure. It's one thing to have industry insiders and friends knowing you're gay, but it's entirely different to come out to a TV audience of millions. There's a risk This Morning would lose viewers or get backlash if this was taken as something that didn't align with 'family values'. As others have said, we are in 2020 but many people still don't understand. I can imagine he was legitimately nervous.

Also, I do think he's come out now because he has been pressured to. Not due to blackmail or his wife wanting to publicly move on with another man, or a scandalous story from the Sunday papers about to be run...but by ITV themselves. All the negative news around him of late has created a lot of chatter around ITV's choice of hosts! You need only look at the early posts in this thread to see how many people were saying the lineup needs a shake-up and all these arrogant pricks should be fired. ITV bosses would have told him they can't take any more negative press with all the rumors around his Diva antics, and this would be a great PR exercise to silence those speaking out against PS. Then there's the added bonus of showing all his ITV 'family' rallying around and therefore reinforcing the image of this being one big happy family, further quashing all the rumors of problems between them.
It is a genius move to deflect from the negative press but I give credit to the ITV higher-ups who came up with this idea, not PS himself.