Can someone explain the Philip Schofield "Scandal" to me?

Start here, OP:

Then here to fall into the rabbit hole:

Is there a succinct summary of what he did wrong?

Schofield has a reputation for being TV's Mr Nice Guy - he's been a huge star since the 80s when he started off in kids TV.

He clearly has an injunction out to stop the media reporting a particular story about a much younger man he had some kind of relationship with who he first met as a child. There are also stories about his behaviour on the TV show which other presenters have hinted at, but they will have signed NDAs and be aware that their future employment with ITV could be at risk if they speak out.

Schofield's brother was recently convicted of sexual abuse of a teenager boy. Schofield told the court he was aware of the abuse but didn't do anything with the information, such as tell the police his brother is a nonce.

So it's not a case of the public being told to hate someone, it's a case of the media being stopped from reporting certain facts.

I think there are a lot of chickens coming home to roost. He is well known as a tyrannical bully on the show, undermining co-presenters to promote himself, and being hostile towards guests. When he interviewed the then Prime Minister David Cameron and showed him a list of people alleged to be paedophiles within the Conservative Party, he did so without warning the programme’s producers. It was all designed to shock.

The swift removal of the young studio runner he was fucking was covered up. Presumably he was becoming a problem to the publicly very married Philip Schofield. The queue jumping at the late Queen’s lying in state was the first opportunity for any criticism to stick. It seems to have snowballed from there. His coming out on air was unnecessary, and merely showed what a narcissist he is.

There is a story circulating that the celebrities that appear on this drivel were organising themselves and planning to confront him live on air. That is when the execs panicked and fired him.

[quote]There is a story circulating that the celebrities that appear on this drivel were organising themselves and planning to confront him live on air. That is when the execs panicked and fired him.

That story was started by Dan Wootton, a man despised as much as Schofield.

Wootton named Dr Ranj Singh as one of the anti Schofield celebrities, which led to Dr Ranj pointing out that he'd not appeared on This Morning for two years.

^ If Dan Wootton's lips are moving, he's lying

The public do not want a gay man on their screens when they are eating breakfast.

It isn’t a breakfast show, it’s mid- morning. It’s brainless entertainment for the kind of women who sit about all day in their pyjamas.

^^ This isn’t about you

He's a fucking self-absorbed closet case who'll be deservedly forgotten in five years.

Brits are big babies. There was no scandal here. They just couldn’t accept that maybe he and his co-presenter weren’t friends irl.

^

I don’t think most people give a flying fuck.

Ludicrous amount of attention being devoted to this glossy lightweight. The press will though keep it going, as they see an injunction as a game-on challenge; and all the subtext as noted above is an energy they can both feed off and revive. TV + sex = tabloid heaven.

PS's ego asserts he'll be back soon. Doubtful. Maybe in due course a tearful interview with that other media paragon Piers Morgan.

Such a pattern.

Someone…anyone…makes it big. And it goes to their heads…& they lose their minds….

And they do themselves in.

Why is it so hard to just be rich, famous, happy & sane?

Is show business so cut throat that celebrities can’t just relax?

I saw two seconds of a clip to get an idea of who he was: How the fuck did anyone think he was hetero?

It’s a familiarity breeds contempt kind of thing and a cumulation of bad personal choices, bad PR and bad press.

It goes to show how easily led the British public is. They’re against him and don’t even know why. This is why they live under a Nanny State.

[quote] There are also stories about his behaviour on the TV show which other presenters have hinted at, but they will have signed NDAs and be aware that their future employment with ITV could be at risk if they speak out.

NDAs are not legally binding nor enforceable on U.K. soil. Likewise, pre-nuptial agreements.

Are you thinking of a press gagging order?

There is supposedly a super injunction in place stopping the press reporting on Schofs behaviour. The main allegations are he’s been shagging an (of age) teenager who he first met when the kid was 13. It’s said his coming out was never something he intended to do but he did it because this boy went to the papers & was about to publicly out him as both gay & sleeping with a teenager. Coming out on TV was always really obviously a massive deflection & very obvious he’d been backed into a corner & felt forced to do it before someone did it for him.

The reason he was thought to be straight was because he’s been married to a woman for about 30 years & has two kids. He’s always been a Hugh Jackman type - apparently straight but makes you scratch your head.

For me, the main scandal here is that he knew his brother was sexually abusing a teenager & he did nothing about it. I find that completely unforgivable and frankly disgusting.

What's the evidence he knew his brother was sexually abusing a teenager? This feels like the usual conflation of homosexuality with paedophilia.

It was revealed in the court case, r21.

It's homophobia. Just stop to think what it would have taken to force someone of his status, rank, seniority and position out if we were talking about a straight counterpart. Stop to think what some of the reactionary UK tv pundits (Clarkson, Morgan etc) have gotten away with over the years that has only increased their power, deals and earnings.

[quote]It's homophobia. Just stop to think what it would have taken to force someone of his status, rank, seniority and position out if we were talking about a straight counterpart. Stop to think what some of the reactionary UK tv pundits (Clarkson, Morgan etc) have gotten away with over the years that has only increased their power, deals and earnings.

Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson have both been sacked from jobs during their long careers.

But let's put your idea to the test.

Imagine Huw Edwards is revealed to have been cheating on his wife with a woman he started dating when he was 50 and she was 17, a woman he met when she was a child. Huw put her up in a flat and got her a job at the BBC where she accompanied him to award shows and after the relationship went sour she moved to BBC Breakfast and then left the BBC. Upon trying to sell her story Huw Edwards won an injunction to stop the story.

There are a flurry of stories about how other newsreaders at the BBC dislike Huw based on how he treats staff.

Then it's revealed that Huw's younger brother is a paedophile and that during the criminal trial Huw testifies that his brother told him he was having sexual relations with an under age girl, and that Huw didn't tell the police.

There is no way that the media would go soft on someone in that situation because he was straight.

In fact the media have gone easy on Schofield after the "I'm gay! confession that was a response to rumours 3 years ago. Until then no one outside of the media had a real clue that he liked fucking teenager boys.

@r19, "NDAs are not legally binding nor enforceable on U.K. soil."

Then how come anyone who works for the Royals has to sign one? 🤔

^ The reaction to his coming out was largely positive. He was too powerful in the industry for the usual suspects to say what they were really thinking. Even Piers Morgan says that Schofield deserved a better sendoff. The shitty behaviour is more of a factor than his sexuality.

And if homophobia is such a potent force in British tv, why was John Barrowman repeatedly given work presenting ITV shows when there were countless stories of sexual misconduct floating around for years. He was still presenting on ITV a year ago.

Clue: a gay man getting his cock out and touching people with it is "funny", a straight man getting his cock out and touching people with it is "indecent exposure" and "sexual assault".

^ You win! 🙄

Schof has admitted to fucking the teenager

How does one pronounce, "Huw"?

It's the Welsh spelling of Hugh, as in Hugh Janus

Ugh. Admittedly I'm "across the pond," but everything I hear about this guy suggests he's insufferable. Today's Daily Fail "admission" was cringeworthy and disingenuous in the extreme. I'd link to it but would then suffer the boilerplate pop-up nonsense that such links generate, which means that you'd all miss out on my gilded assessment.

R30, It’s the Welsh spelling of “Hugh”. It’s pronounced the same.

MARY!

Gay from space tv presenter comes out on tv show.

Oh, and he’s sorry for cheating on his wife.

Hilarity ensues.

Seriously though that pic at OP - where are the cookies?

Schofield is a nasty piece of work but he's been a nasty piece of work for decades and been successful throughout. He hosts several shows besides the morning chat fest. Dancing on Ice, Brit-Soap Awards, all kinds of stuff, he's an institution on ITV.

After he got all that bad press for jumping the queue at the Queen's lying in state (with Holly Twatforbrains right there with him) things started to go downhill PR-wise. The forever-ingenue-in-her-mind Holly Willoughby blamed Phil and became unhappy co-hosting with him all of a sudden. Her own popularity had taken a hit and she turned on him.

The thing with his brother became a big deal. Lurking in the background, the really big deal has been this young man whom Phil helped to find a job and sugar-daddy'd for a while although I believe they waited until he was of age to actually fuck. The younger man had parlayed meeting Phil when he was younger into being promoted and kept by Phil when he was older. Unsavory, to be sure, but there was no crime here and the young man was no innocent angel, let's be real.

I'd just as soon they get rid of that hag Holly while they're cleaning house. She's awful and dumb and fake. Phil's always been mean bastard and I'd be glad to see the last of both of them.

Eamonn fucking whatsisname is a huge piece of shit, too.

I'm not sure I understand the big scandal, still. Straight men have consensual workplace affairs with younger women all the time and its swept under the rug. Obviously, if the younger man had been underage, that would be unacceptable, but, apparently, that was not the case. Maybe if he'd admitted it from the start it would have been a leave of absence vs. a total bridge burning. Oh, well, hopefully he saved well. His salary was less than what I assumed it would be for someone who earned this level of attention. It was apparently between 600,000-700,000 pounds a year.

The issue was that he met the guy when the guy was underage. He didn't move to London and get involved with Phil until he was of age. The "met him earlier" seems to loom large in the pearl-clutcher's imaginations.

Phil came out and that was fine. The younger man thing lurked around in the shadows for a long, long time. Years.

What really did Phil in was when he jumped that fucking queue at the Queen's lying in state. Holly the Git did it too. The public was FURIOUS with the both of them. Then Holly started blaming Phil and complaining about Phil. She's been doing it for months and his brother being convicted on a molestation charge was all she needed.

Granted - Phil's a complete fucking asshole, everyone hates him but "butter wouldn't melt" Holly is a piece of work too. She's the one who pushed him out and portrayed him as "the problem" to the higher ups. No doubt Holly will be gone too before too long, couldn't happen to a more deserving backstabber.

So tired of seeing Holly pop up everywhere. She'd go to the opening of an envelope.

R41 I see Ruth has found this thread

Nah, she can fuck off with Eamonn, too. Can't stand the lot of them. British media is a cesspool.

[quote] She'd go to the opening of an envelope.

Hello there!

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

This "groomer" shit is a homophobic attack.

Breakfast TV-exit

He’s a nasty shit of a man, and it’s all caught up with him. I don’t believe there is homophobia involved.

Homophobia is involved in calling him a groomer and attacking him for having a consensual sexual relationship with a legal adult, albeit one who is considerably younger than Schofield himself.

It's always the ones with a nice and clean image. (Oh well, never mind, sometimes they give creepy fuck vibes right from the start like Saville.)

[quote] Homophobia is involved in calling him a groomer…

Schofield is reported to have met this young man when he was a ten-year-old kid, and then (he says) entered into a relationship with him when he was barely legal. There is no world in which that looks good, and I think most people would find it grim. This is especially true of the audience who have until recently been Schofield’s main supporters: stay-at-home mums, the elderly. He spent decades cultivating a blandly warm, friendly persona and now those people (who stuck with him when he came out) are wondering who the hell he actually is. Throw in a paedophile brother (who he didn’t even mention to his co-host until the brother was on trial), a whole host of former colleagues who genuinely detest him, the queue-jumping and his position was untenable. His dalliance with a teenager would never have looked good, but to someone who was so genuinely disliked by his colleagues, it became terminal. He had no supporters left.

It was always unrealistic that he would perform his next ITV gig, which was presenting the Soap Awards. It’s the type of event where extremely minor TV personalities get pissed and they could have said anything.

R46 probably agrees with Peter Tatchell that children can enjoy sex with adults.

[quote] This "groomer" shit is a homophobic attack.

The standard defense for the indefensible. Wave the flag calling something homophobic, racist, ableist, classist, sexist, or any of the other code words designated to forbid any further conversation.

A reminder that straight men are also judged for their behaviour towards teenage girls

No, you vicious evil cunt, the younger partner of Schofield's was OF AGE when they began having sex. Of age is perfectly acceptable. This "groomer" shit has got to stop. It's evil and only the vilest cunts in the world would perpetrate that cheap bullshit.

I think Phil Schofield is a CUNT and a nasty piece of work. I've always thought so, I think the same thing about Holly Whatsherface. CUNT. I thought jumping the Queen's lying in state queue was appalling, lying about it made it even worse. They should have sacked them both right then.

I don't care what he did or didn't tell that cunt Holly about his brother and his brother's issues.

People can have affairs with much younger partners. People can meet someone when they're a child and fuck them years later as an adult without any "grooming" going on at all. I'm ancient now. I've known kids, seen them get older and become fuckable when they are OF AGE. So what? Lesbians do it all the time. Are all those women GROOMING girls or did they just meet them 10 years before they fucked them? Do you hate ALL relationships where there's an age disparity? How about Sarah Paulson and that old lady she's fucking? Did they old lady GROOM her? Did Cherry Jones GROOM Sarah first?

It's a sick homophobe's fantasy that all gay men are out there "grooming" children to be their sexual partners. You're a sicker fuck than usual if you come here to the Datalounge, a gay men's website, and throw that nasty shit around here. You should be banned from this site forever for doing that. I hope that Muriel does ban you soon.

So there, you fucking cunts.

Strong nonce vibes there from R55

And the word ‘groomer’ is used in the UK in a very different way to the US.

More details are going to come out over the next few days.

And most likely more guys who Phillip ‘met’ as teenagers

There is a very distinct sense that one is waiting for the other shoe to drop. The story so far just doesn't add up.

[quote] It goes to show how easily led the British public is.

R18, ever hung out in the U.S.?

[quote]his brother is a nonce

Huh?

R60 Look it up, fool.

Ephebophilia is gross.

R62 Wow, insightful contribution

Oh fuck off, R63. Gay men need to confront the issue. It's disgusting how acceptable it is amongst gay men to be into adolescents.

[quote] ITV has said it investigated “rumours” of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and a younger employee in 2020 - but both “repeatedly denied” it.

R64 No one said otherwise, dear. Your wording was that of a simpleton.

A "progressive" Christian who regularly appears on TV and is involved in education has this to say:

[quote]With Phillip Schofield in his sorrow & honesty over his lies about his ‘unwise but not illegal’ relationship with a younger employee at ITV. This moment also creates the opportunity for us all to reflect again on the pressure on those who are gay, but feel they have to hide it.

After a lot of criticism he tweeted

[quote]My point is the grooming of the young by those with power is wrong & all institutions are responsible for safeguarding against it. But P Schofield’s statement is clear, so unless evidence is presented to the contrary, all condemning talk is speculation.Innocent till proved guilt!

With all the talk of homophobia, it's statements like this which frame Schofield's homosexuality as an excuse for grooming/inappropriate relationships, not an irrelevant factor.

[quote] No, you vicious evil cunt, the younger partner of Schofield's was OF AGE when they began having sex.

A fact given to us by one Mr. Philip Schofield, who just released a long statement featuring a laundry list of lies he'd told. He is perhaps not the most reliable source at this moment.

I agree "groomer" is certainly an overused term at the moment, and 99.9 percent of the situations it's been used in recently (especially re: drag queens) came from homophobia or just a general fuckwad of right wing nonsense. Unfortunately, Mr. Schofield is the person who actually fits this term.

I don’t understand gay men who like young boys. I like big hairy arsed men with big genitals.

R60, I don't know what a "nonce" is either, nor do I care to even though one of the cunts called me whatever it is. It's some silly cunt word the girls made up to harass gay men and accuse us all of being pedophiles. These women are fucking sick and they sure don't belong on the Datalounge. They hate ALL men, they hate gay men as much as straight men - they hate anyone with a cock.

They take their penis-envy to new gutters of filth every time they attack gay men on a gay men's website. Disgraceful.

MURIEL! Homophobic man-hating spill on aisle Schofield.

[quote] It's some silly cunt word the girls made up to harass gay men and accuse us all of being pedophiles.

You're an absolute fucking idiot. No, Mary, the world does NOT exist to harass you or react to whatever your fucking issue with the world might be.

"Nonce" is a British term that's been around for many years that's synonymous with pedophile.

You're obviously not British, R72 (super-obvious).

Why do you use dumb British slang to accuse all homosexual men of being pedophiles? Why would you come to a gay men's website and accuse everyone of being pedophiles? Were you repeatedly dropped on your head as a hotel maid?

There have been blind items about his proclivities for years

[quote]R60, I don't know what a "nonce" is either, nor do I care to even though one of the cunts called me whatever it is. It's some silly cunt word the girls made up to harass gay men and accuse us all of being pedophiles. These women are fucking sick and they sure don't belong on the Datalounge. They hate ALL men, they hate gay men as much as straight men - they hate anyone with a cock.

They take their penis-envy to new gutters of filth every time they attack gay men on a gay men's website. Disgraceful.

[quote]Why do you use dumb British slang to accuse all homosexual men of being pedophiles? Why would you come to a gay men's website and accuse everyone of being pedophiles? Were you repeatedly dropped on your head as a hotel maid?

Oh hun, is the Schofield affair bringing back memories of the time you took a shine to a 15 year old?

Was it your nephew? Was he called Joel?

It's so nice to see Brits with their knickers in a twist over something other then the Royal Clownshow

There are rumours that there was some sort of altercation between Schofield and the runner at the 2020 NTAs. Days later, Schofield came out on TV.

NONCE SENSE

David Walliams will be next. Similar deal, but with girls instead of boys.

R73 I'm not R72 but they are right in saying the word has been around for years here in the UK and is a general term for a paedophile, not specifically targeted at gay men. I first heard it on the now defunct soap Brookside.

Now the British drag queens are getting involved

R70 is truly a moron

R82 is truly ...zzzzzzz

Nonce = pedophile

I’ve always thought that Holly has eyes like Mr. Blobby.

Another statement from Schofield

[quote]David Walliams will be next. Similar deal, but with girls instead of boys.

EWWWW.

Is Holly Willoughby the UK's insipid answer to Kelly Ripa (and, if so, who asked?). Ugh.

Kinda. Her persona is a responsible, fun mum next door type who was a bit wild in her day. She’s less bitchy and not a tough Jersey girl like Kelly. Like her BFF would be Leslie Jordan, not Andy Cohen.

Philip Schofield is being dropped like a hot brick by all his advertising deals, and even from his role with the Prince’s Trust. Good. He comes across as a manipulative, controlling chicken hawk.

[quote] He comes across as a manipulative, controlling chicken hawk.

i.e. -- "Groomer"

Meh. He's just another rich and famous man who had a wife and kids at home and a young piece of ass on the side whom he did a lot of favors for.

A tale as old as time...

[quote]Is Holly Willoughby the UK's insipid answer to Kelly Ripa (and, if so, who asked?). Ugh.

She's a professional presenter who seems to be very popular. Eamonn Holmes clearly hates her but a lot of his vitriol is snobbery. He's a proper journalist, trained in tv news, and an experienced presenter. Holly started off as a model, started working in kids shows and is a "light entertainment presenter" not a journalist like him and Ruth

Not sure if this has been posted. It’s a pretty homophobic fat frau Twitter thread, but contains videos

I've stopped clicking on Twitter links, R94. It's such a homophobic, racist cesspool over there that I just don't bother looking. I've never had a Twitter account, thank God.

I don’t think the general reaction has been homophobic, but there have been some homophobic elements.

The media keeps saying “an affair with a MALE colleague” as though that somehow makes it more salacious and worse.

I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of people suggesting the guy wasn’t originally gay and that Phil somehow made him gay. The classic homophobic trope that homosexuality is somehow contagious.

But the general reaction is that the relationship was weird because he met the guy when he was under 18 even though nothing happened till he was over 18. That’s weird regardless of sexual orientation.

I don’t think the reaction to this is homophobia. The UK is generally far less homophobic than the US. We have a number of celebrated gay presenters and celebrities, such as Graham Norton, the late Paul O’Grady, Stephen Fry, Alan Carr, Joe Lycett, just off the top of my head.

The thing with Phillip Schofield is manifold. He basically was photographed with this guy from the time he was a school child and part of a theatre group PS was patron of. Schofield added him on Twitter when he was 15 and they maintained some kind of relationship in which Schofield got him a job on TV and began fucking him the moment he was legal (we presume). I doubt Schofield was stupid enough to fuck him before that but it’s still really creepy and off. Who gets to know a pre-teen child and makes friends with them only to start a sexual relationship with them the moment it’s “unwise but not illegal”. I could never be attracted to someone I’d known since they were a kid because I’d still always see them as that kid.

On top of that, it’s well documented that Schofield would stay up all night chatting up teenage boys on Snapchat. Plus there’s evidence there were plenty other young guys he “mentored”. He was married with kids yet had a flat where he would “entertain” guys.

It’s just plain skeevy. He basically did a Kevin Spacey—he only came out as a way of deflecting from abuse allegations (this guy was evidently going to the papers about their relationship from what I father). On top of that, he’s apparently a huge egotistical, narcissistic bastard who has bullied and treated people like crap over the years and the chickens have come home to roost.

That’s not to mention the fact his brother is also gay and into teenage boys, in his case, abusing a minor. He’s in jail now I think. Philip actually knew what his brother was doing and did nothing. For both brothers to be like this it makes you wonder about their own childhood, but who knows.

It’s all very sad. I grew up watching him presenting children’s tv and always liked him. Although I didnt watch shitshow This Morning other than the odd clip, I could tell his true colours were showing in recent years. He could be rather clipped and harsh and you could see he perhaps wasn’t “Mr Nice” after all.

R97 I agree we have a large amount of celebrated gay presenters but generally those celebrities rarely make reference to, or are photographed with, their partners.

I think the general public are fine with the concept that someone’s gay, but they’d rather a sanitised and chaste version be presented. I think Elton John and David Furnish are the only ones who are a prominent well know gay couple.

Gay men get an easier ride for their indiscretions.

Boy George has been completely rehabilitated for the incident where he held a prostitute captive and beat him. He was booked to go on Celebrity Big Brother shortly after his release from prison and was raking in the cash from interviews about how he had coped in prison. A man who had abused a woman like that would have been treated very differently.

The number of straight men who have lost their jobs for getting their dicks out for a laugh yet with John Barrowman it was just a joke.

And see also the number of male politicians who have groped or abused younger gay men. It's not taken as seriously as if it had been a woman.

You're high, R99. The old adage in politics is that one must never be caught with a live man or a dead woman. Everything else is all right.

Homosexual affairs are punished just as harshly, if not more harshly in most cases, as heterosexual ones.

Oh please. MPs Patrick Grady, Nigel Evans and Chris Pincher were all treated as a joke when men came forward to say they'd been assaulted.

[quote]The old adage in politics is that one must never be caught with a live man or a dead woman.

Well, old adages sometimes go out of date, R100. ITV knew about the Schofield stuff for years: are we honestly meant to believe that they would have sat on this if it had been a straight male presenter and a girl/woman in her teens?

Even the comment pieces from the supposedly far-right Daily Mail have been lead by gay men (Dan Wootton and Andrew Pierce).

*led

When this story broke there were suggestions it was homophobic and the man was targeted because he was gay and married to a woman.

No, he's just a dirty old man and men who have behaved like that with females are treated the same;

R99 What a Frau thing to say. Gay men certainly do not get off easier than straight guys. Look at Donald "Grab them by the pussy"/rape women and underage girls Trump. The examples you gave, Boy George and John Barrowman I don't agree with. Boy George's career has been over forever and he's like some bizarre curiosity piece. John Barrowman has faced a significant backlash, had to cancel a tour and I don't imagine his career is going to bounce back in the near future.

[quote] Oh please. MPs Patrick Grady, Nigel Evans and Chris Pincher were all treated as a joke when men came forward to say they'd been assaulted.

The joke really made itself in the case of the latter. You go about groping other men when your surname is PINCHER. Couldn't make that shit up.

R98 don't forget about us!

Paul O'Grady says hi from the grave.

The guy is a pathological liar. How does anyone know he waited till the guy was 18?

He knew the guy since he was 10 and kept his hands off of him for 8 years? Ha!

Gaby Hinsliff wrote a great op-ed about Schofield yesterday in "The Guardian."

Whether he's gay or straight, what he did was inappropriate. He lied about it and tried to cover it up. It does appear as if he groomed the kid. Whether he was of age when an affair began, it doesn't matter. They were not equals in the power dynamic or in the consensual dynamic. Schofield is just a dirty, old man.

I'd add the advise, too...Don't shit where you eat.

The Guardian h8s old gay men

I guess it's still unclear how Phil got his sexual kicks for all those married years, and none of our business but I do wonder if this affair with a teen was partly his way of "making up for lost time".

[quote] It does appear as if he groomed the kid. Whether he was of age when an affair began, it doesn't matter. They were not equals in the power dynamic

Frau alert!

This is still a non-story that hysterics with no lives foam at the mouth over.

[quote][R99] What a Frau thing to say. Gay men certainly do not get off easier than straight guys. Look at Donald "Grab them by the pussy"/rape women and underage girls Trump. The examples you gave, Boy George and John Barrowman I don't agree with. Boy George's career has been over forever and he's like some bizarre curiosity piece. John Barrowman has faced a significant backlash, had to cancel a tour and I don't imagine his career is going to bounce back in the near future.

Boy George's agents were taking bookings for TV appearances when he was in prison. He has since been a coach on The Voice, done multiple reality shows, won lifetime achievement awards. He suffered no consequences for his actions.

And Barrowman's behaviour was known for years, talked about, laughed about. It was only in 2021 when Noel Clarke faced accusations of sexual abuse that a clip resurfaced of Clarke talking about Barrowman with actresses from Doctor Who and Barrowman had some negative press coverage but was invited onto Lorraine to redeem himself. ITV still had him presenting their shows in 2022. He still got to release an album but cancelled the planned tour because of ticket sales, not because venues didn't want him performing.

R104 - Back in the 1980s Keith Vaz was always incredibly pro-gay in Parliament and forever giving quotes to the gay press. He was (or maybe still) incredibly quick to threaten to sue people.

Just check out the 'controversies' on his Wikipedia page.

[quote]Just check out the 'controversies' on his Wikipedia page.

Keith Vaz is such a dishonest and corrupt politician he makes Boris Johnson look decent.

Is Barroman the Broadway actor who had sex with a female teenage fan who he thought was of age?

No, John Barrowman is the musical theatre/soap star/light entertainment star who is openly gay but was well known for getting his dick out and hitting people with it as a joke.

He appeared in the first series of the rebooted Doctor Who and a lot of women hated it but didn't say anything. Christopher Eccleston was the lead and hated the experience of working with Barrowman. When the producer left the actors made a video and referenced it.

As Noel Clarke says, if a straight man does it, he's getting arrested.

And one of the reasons Barrowman was finally condemned for it in 2021 wasn't just the Noel Clarke accusations but the murder of Sarah Everard. The police officer who arrested/abducted, raped and murdered her had been reported for flashing by McDonalds staff a few days before he abducted her. There was huge outcry that if flashing has been taken seriously then he might have been arrested before he had the chance to murder Everard.

But Barrowman was back on ITV a year later.

R73, your legs must be sore from leaping to so many dumb conclusions....landing on your fat, pimply ass, no doubt.

[quote] Why do you use dumb British slang to accuse all homosexual men of being pedophiles? I said no such thing, you illiterate piece of shit. I simply said that "nonce" is a British term. I'm not even British and even I know what it means and the context in which it's being used.

[quote] Why would you come to a gay men's website and accuse everyone of being pedophiles? I said no such thing, you illiterate piece of shit. And I AM a gay man, you halfwitted fuckwit, and have been here for decades. So get fucked with a rusty, jagged pipe.

[quote] Were you repeatedly dropped on your head as a hotel maid? Sorry princess, but the maids wait on ME.

A joke::

A nonce, a ponce and a paedo in a speedo walk into a bar. The barmaid says "Sorry gents, no draught today".

Despite this all happening in the UK this is related to the topic of that book coming out about toxic work environments on TV shows.

Once the money pours in the oversight disappears and boys will be boys, whether those "boys" like men, women or jailbait that can't consent.

[quote] I guess it's still unclear how Phil got his sexual kicks for all those married years, and none of our business but I do wonder if this affair with a teen was partly his way of "making up for lost time".

Apparently it's been an "open secret" in the industry for years that he's gay. Heck, back in the early 90's Spitting Image did a brutal skit making out Phil was a closet gay (and that he was having an affair with Jason Donovan; apparently the two were once spotted kissing in a club). Phil had his own flat in London for years where he's most likely been "entertaining" fellow gays, presumably much younger ones at that. It seems his marriage was a lavender marriage.

It wasn't a secret Russell T Davies was in on

[quote]Explaining the reference, Russell told The Times : "Gay men always say that a handsome man on television is gay. So in the 1980s we always used to say Phillip Schofield was gay. "The lawyer said, 'No, you don’t need to clear this with Schofield, because he’s straight. He’s married with children, we don’t need to check that'.

[quote]"Only now he’s come out! Isn’t that weird?" He also said to Pink News : "See, I never thought that Phillip Schofield was gay. I was like a right chump… He’s always been very nice to me – I look a little bit like I’m taking potshots at him now. "Whereas actually, when that was written and filmed we’d all presumed he was so straight that that line was no offence, because I was attacking gay men who always presume that the handsome man on television is gay."

R122 call me dumb but I don't get it?

Phillip Schofield's 'fragile' former lover abandoned his promising TV career to work in a pub in a rural village in the Lake District, it emerged last night.

Friends of the young man, who landed a role at ITV after meeting Schofield, claimed he was 'determined to be famous', but suffered 'a big downfall' when the affair with the presenter ended.

It follows claims that ITV paid off the young star following the breakdown of the relationship. The broadcaster repeatedly declined to comment on the alleged settlement or deny it.

After the young man reportedly declared his love for Schofield at an awards ceremony in January 2020, he was then moved to another of the network's programme Loose Women, before eventually leaving the broadcaster.

Now photos have emerged showing him working at a rural bed and breakfast, having turned his back on hopes of a dazzling television career amid the scandal surrounding This Morning and Schofield.

------------------

The face of a cad and bounder

Rofl at the bloody fucking Eamonn and Ruth, who are basically Fox & Friends-style right wingers, being put on a pedestal here. Sounds like something that nationalist Brexit loon DLer Angry Young Brit would post.

r127 - that Telegraph article is behind a paywall? Anything worth sharing? And where are the pics of the younger man?

R129 you can click off the ad and then read it?

It's just resting the relationship was an open secret, everyone on the show talked about it, the young man spent much time with Philip and interacted with the celebs appearing. Now he's working/managing a B&B in the Lake District. Also, some people are calling for an inquiry into how this happened (the affair and cover up, not the boy moving up north!)

If you have an iPhone and want to read Telegraph stories, just switch to reader view before it loads fully.

Did the Telegraph track McGreevey down? That’s Sun-level trashiness.

R128 Eamonn Holmes was probably the very person I noticed using “woke” as a pejorative at the time when it was filtering out of the American black community into public discourse.

R129 someone typically saves the newspaper articles behind a paywall into archive.ph quite quickly so you can copy the links into its search engine.

[quote] ‘Runner was determined to be famous’

An aspiring television presenter was determined to be famous? Oh my giddy aunt.

[quote][R128] Eamonn Holmes was probably the very person I noticed using “woke” as a pejorative at the time when it was filtering out of the American black community into public discourse.

Every reference on GB News is "woke ITV" and the chief exec is "queen of woke".

It's used for everything now. Strictly is woke because it has same sex couples/disabled celebrities. A university that bans white people from attending events is "woke".

[QUOTE]A university that bans white people from attending events is "woke".

This is legal, as in codified, in the U.K.?

Having an event/providing a service exclusively for one group is lawful, eg gay men's health network is not obligated to provide advice on pregnancy.

But I'm not sure if this was "WHITES BANNED" or simply an event specifically for black people.

R135 Indeed and Dan Wootton is the worst of them. He must be squeaky clean to sit in judgement of pretty much everyone. He’s such a cunt.

Isn't "ban" a rather strong word that implies a legal basis for exclusion?

(No trans issues meant to be evoked).

The runner isn’t being named in the UK media, so there is possibly an injunction. I hope he isn’t thrown to the wolves. He was young and was definitely exploited.

There's no injunction but the press are being respectful (surprisingly) incase he is potentially a victim of a crime

I'm probably the one one left on the planet but I still don't really understand what's happened.

He was a presenter on tv on lots of programs in the eighties when I was a kid and I always knew he was gay but thought it was just never mentioned. He was well-liked. I was surprised to read in this thread that he was married for 30 years! And has children!

Whatever he's done must be very serious because I googled him and that's what popped up. It's not good at all.

This is a good succinct summary of the situation. What a disastah!

I remember him doing the Princes Trust concerts but they've dropped him now.

Sorry - link:

[QUOTE]Heck, back in the early 90's Spitting Image did a brutal skit making out Phil was a closet gay (and that he was having an affair with Jason Donovan; apparently the two were once spotted kissing in a club).

There was also one on the Mary Whitehouse Experience. They were taking the piss out of Brett Anderson from Suede pretending to be gay and using lots of gay light entertainment clichés in his lyrics like "Shut that door" and wondering to himself "What else do they say...?" and ending up with "Welcome to Going Live", which was a kids show Schofield presented.

My favourite Spitting Image sketch was when Julian Clary was outed as straight, being seen drinking pints and playing snooker.

NO IT'S A LIE! he replied.

ITV announces Schofield's replacement for the British Soap Awards. ITV has announced that Jane McDonald will now host the British Soap Awards, following Phillip Schofield's departure from the network

---------------

The Prince's Trust has dropped Phillip Schofield as an ambassador after he admitted he had an affair with a young male colleague and lied to cover it up. The charity, founded by the King, said it was "no longer appropriate" for it to work with the presenter.

-------------------

Sustainable wine company When in Rome has told db that its deal with Phillip Schofield has ‘drawn to a natural conclusion’.

Philip was a fool to frolic with a kid 40 years younger than him. While I don't know if he groomed the boy or whether the bullying accusations are true, I agree with a poster who said that his nice guy mask slips, plus I'm bloody sick of him flogging shit in ads so won't be sorry.

Now Holly needs to limit herself too because she's equally overexposed, presenting and ads,

[quote] but I still don't really understand what's happened.

HE

FUCKED

AROUND

WITH

AN

UNDERAGE

KID

Is that clear enough for you?

Is there a single article from a mainstream outlet that has even alleged that, R149?

Did Schofield write the freaky script that McGeevey is reading in R94? Lol it’s kinda hot

It'd a weird scandal. Once he apologized and quit the show it should have been over. At this point it's between him and his family, not the public and not the other people on the show.

R150 No direct allegation, but (a) it's being strongly implied because the working relationship happened when the young man was underage and (b) Schofield has lied about literally everything else under the sun, so his insistence that the young man was of consenting age is being looked at with serious side eye.

The press and the company lawyers are pushing to see if anything comes up - if the young man decides to spill the beans, etc.

ITV released a statement to say McGreevy was 19 when did work experience on the show (in 2015) and 20 when he joined This Morning as an employee. He joined Loose Women in 2019 (aged 23) and left ITV in 2021 (aged 25) so will be 27ish now.

So 34 years younger than Schofield.

Eamonn is such a prick. He described Phil’s meeting his boyfriends in his London flat as “Thursday Playtime”. Thanks for that imagery, fucker. Now I get the impression Eamonn really wants to say something truly homophobic but is holding it in.

No he didn't, R149. R154 has the correct timeline.

There's a huge age gap but Phil's partner wasn't underage when he fucked him.

It doesn't help that he looks and sounds like a little boy

[quote] but Phil's partner wasn't underage when he fucked him.

So the groomer of the underage kid says

R15, people pursuing fame in the entertainment industry are often troubled to begin with. If they achieve their goal, celebrity and wealth don’t fix them. Being rich and famous exaggerates all the bad qualities they already had.

That's a lie!

The BBC have a 45 minute interview.

It would be FUCKING MENTAL to lie about times and dates and ages of his relationship so I'm tempted to take his word for it. BUT HE IS A LIAR SO MAYBE I SHOULDN'T.

Did McGreevey get marginalized by being sent to a *less than* show once Phil no longer needed his services and his career got derailed? Buh, bye 👋!

Eammon's implication of drug abuse (kid wasn't in a good way and always needing money) and the fact that Ruth still keeps up with him as he manages some pub/inn in the hinterlands suggests as much.

Kid got caught up in forces he didn't understand, let alone steer to his benefit

Fucking hell, Alison Hammond in tears quoting her dead mother and the bible.

When I was 25 there was a neighbor boy of 17 who's father had died and his mother was in a wheel chair who took a liking to me. He would come over when I got home from work and we would have dinner and play video games or just talk. The boy was an a Adonis, just the most beautiful, built 17 year old you'd ever want to see. I wanted to fuck him so badly, but I just couldn't betray that little brother/big brother relationship we've developed. The poor kid just wanted some male attention/bonding and I could never live with myself had I pushed for more

Schofield is scum for taking advantage of a young boy/man like that, be it legal or not 😠

r147 Jane MacDonald is an excellent choice as a replacement to present the soap awards. He already had big presenting jobs on This Morning, Dancing on Ice(I will be interested to see who replaces him on that and if Holly does or does not stay on that show) and The Cube. I don't understand why he was given the Soap awards job too. There have always been plenty of other good people to share the ITV jobs around with. They fed his ego unnecessarily giving him so much.

I'm somewhat surprised we haven't seen any photos of McGreevey taken long-range with a zoom lens yet or that the tabs haven't dug into his background and reported it thoroughly. Is the injunction specific to Schofield and the relationship or does it also cover reporting about McGreevey? I find it hard to believe the tabloids are being so respectful. Or maybe people are aware of his fragile state of mind and don't want to push him if self-harm is a possibility.

R165 I think the overexposure plus all the ads he was shilling for make me sick of the sight of him years ago. Plus I don't respect any woman like Holly who does ads for do-it-at-home hair dye when she has a stylist and wouldn't touch the stuff herself

R163 Dermott looked like he wanted to die. He clearly loathed Phil.

R164 did he know you were gay? what did he say about that? nothing at all?

[quote]I'm somewhat surprised we haven't seen any photos of McGreevey taken long-range with a zoom lens yet or that the tabs haven't dug into his background and reported it thoroughly. Is the injunction specific to Schofield and the relationship or does it also cover reporting about McGreevey? I find it hard to believe the tabloids are being so respectful. Or maybe people are aware of his fragile state of mind and don't want to push him if self-harm is a possibility.

There was no injunction, surprisingly. And no NDA. And it doesn't look like McGreevy has tried to sell his story which was widely assumed.

One thing Schofield was asked about in the BBC interviews was whether the tabloids were running a story on him and if that's why he came out and he replied with something like "they couldn't out me - that's illegal".

There is a view that McGreevy is a private citizen who has not sought fame so has been left alone. And as long as there was a suspicion that he was groomed then the media would have been identifying the victim of a crime.

Schofield said he had been in touch with McGreevy recently and was paying for McGreevy's lawyers. The more I think about it, the more I think his testimony was a load of shit. Schofield is an experienced media performer, he has hired crisis managers and coached and rehearsed answers, like the comparison to Caroline Flack, the accusations of homophobia, the "yes I followed him on Twitter when he was 15 but I follow 3000 people".

It's in McGreevy's interest to keep quiet and say nothing and if necessary back up Schofield's version of events.

Schofield was coming to terms with being gay and just happened to kiss a much younger man he had helped get a job on the tv show, but they only had sex 5 times but were very good mates?

There’s no scandal here other than the one the conservative media is creating. They’re shouting shit like “They lied to us!” about the hosts being friends. They have arrested development. This just want to trash ITV in any way they can for being woke.

R166, the UK doesn’t have a free speech amendment. Speech is controlled.

@r169, Probably, but he never asked and I didn't see the need in discussing my sex life with him

[quote]There’s no scandal here other than the one the conservative media is creating. They’re shouting shit like “They lied to us!” about the hosts being friends. They have arrested development. This just want to trash ITV in any way they can for being woke.

There's an element to that, especially GB News and their obsession with "WOKE ITV" but it's also how the media works in general.

If a newspaper has a scandal about a celebrity they won't just run it, they'll be offered another story in exchange for pulling the scoop. Look at the YMU roster. Got a story about Amanda Holden being fucked over the bonnet of a Ford Fiesta? Don't run it and you'll get an exclusive on Tom Daley's new baby and why Jesy Nelson from Little Mix is giving up the fake tan.

That's how it's worked for years.

Dan Wootton was part of that and Lorraine the actress is a part of it. The amount of pure shite that met Schofield's announcement that he was gay (STUNNING AND BRAVE) is now hilarious when people are sharing their true feelings.

The dishonesty is now what is driving the story. And yes, the press are fundamentally dishonest.

I don't understand how controlled speech would prevent the paps from taking pictures of him and reporting on his activities. They do it all the time with others.

[quote] There’s no scandal here other than the one the conservative media is creating.

Fool. BBC and the Guardian are hardly conservative media. All British media seem to be covering this.

[QUOTE]Schofield said he had been in touch with McGreevy recently and was paying for McGreevy's lawyers.

Why would McGreevey need lawyers? I find it a little concerning that by doing so he's still in a position of power over the young man. I hope they're ethical lawyers.

[quote] hope they're ethical lawyers.

My first guess is this was arranged by ITV execs to keep the lid on. That kid will collect a neatly laundered payoff to keep quiet.

I really hope he does. He went from a career full of promise to this. The age difference and the implication of grooming are skeevey enough. Just as bad as the potential for the kid's broken heart is the fact that the power differential is so imbalanced against him and, ya know, it resulted in his life being upended and harmed. I'd be tempted to change my name if I were him.

Honestly I’m bored as fuck with all this now. Even BBC News’ top articles are about Philip Schofield. He’s rightly left TV for good - so can he please just disappear and people can then finally shut up about it.

Eamon Holmes is such a slimy cunt, too. His ‘exclusive’ interview with Dan Wootton on GB News was so embarrassing because it was clear he only did it because he’s bitter. They’re all shitty people.

[QUOTE]Honestly I’m bored as fuck with all this now.

You have a funny way of showing it.

R181 Thank you.

[quote] so can he please just disappear and people can then finally shut up about it.

The ITV execs and the others who covered up or turned a blind eye to the grooming agree with you.

Using Caroline Flack’s suicide as a cudgel to criticise Wootten is disgusting. At least have the courage to tell Wootten to fuck off without using that poor woman’s corpse to do it.

^ Comparing himself to what Caroline Flack went through at the hands of the media is worse. He is such a pussy snowflake 😠

[quote] so can he please just disappear and people can then finally shut up about it.

Your wish is not granted. 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 is now investigating the groomer and his enablers

Has Lorraine commented?

[quote]Has Lorraine commented?

Lorraine Kelly the actress has said nothing, whereas Lorraine Kelly the jolly tv presenter is due to make a statement on Monday.

This relationship has been known by the higher ups for a number of years. And Holly is so full of shit she had no idea. She should be dumped from everything as well for her enabling let alone scumbag McCall. This show is a huge money maker so nobody was going to rock the boat. Look at Levine and the Met where everybody in the classical music world knew for decades what was going on and did nothing.

Schofield is a pathological liar so we are supposed to believe him that nothing happened until the boy was of age? He knew him from at least when the kid was 11.

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield are the people they roll out in EVERY movie where they have to show that someone is famous in the UK by doing an interview with them as part of the plot of the movie.

What a fucking bizarre sideshow post-Brexit Britain is. Or maybe it was always like this and the emperor.is unclad.

Now Schofield is in poor me self pitying mode. 'Oh I want to kill myself!' Buddy you fucked up royally. If you want to kill yourself it's your choice. But who is really supposed to care? You'll leave your wife and daughters multi-millionaires.

^ I'm sure the five boys chained up in the basement will be happy to see him go

^ But they were a present for George Clooney 🙄

[quote]What a fucking bizarre sideshow post-Brexit Britain is. Or maybe it was always like this and the emperor.is unclad.

Yes, celebrity scandals are exclusive to the UK, so exceptional is Britain.

^ Not exclusive, but why are celebrity scandals front page news for weeks/months/years? Is nothing else of interest in GB?

British show business is very small and everyone seems to know one another which gives it more of an incestuous vibe, I think

^ GB strikes me as the biggest small town in the world with everyone in everybody's business

One of the best known TV presenters in the UK was sacked from his job after he lied about having an affair with a guy he first met as a child and was talking to on social media when he was 17. A guy he helped get a job on his tv show when he was a teenager, a guy 35 years younger than him.

Several people came forward saying the relationship was well known by people who worked on the show.

The story isn't just about 2 gays with an age gap, it's about how a TV company had lied about what it knew.

And the way The Sun has now been given exclusive interviews and staged photo shoots involving Schofield's elderly mother, who recently saw her other son go to prison, is quite disgraceful.

I get the feeling there's a giant pedo ring involving the highest members of entertainment/government and even the Monarchy about to be exposed

Fat British cows will be winning awards for crying on-air about two men having sex. How ridiculous. I hope the younger guy gets something out of all this. If the public will have his name in their mouths for the next few months, maybe he could start a YouTube channel or something 🧐

^ I hear he can't say a word until his NDA expires, which I guess is pretty soon

Wasn't this man (he's 30-ish) already paid a big pile of cash by ITV to shut the fuck up and go away?

Is he just waiting for some NDA to "expire" before he starts selling his story?

^ He's 27 now and cooperating with Schofield's high-paid lawyers. Whatever that means

[quote]^ I hear he can't say a word until his NDA expires, which I guess is pretty soon

Schofield said in his interview there is no NDA. He's lawyers are being paid for by Schofield and Schofield has been in touch with him recently.

It's been strongly hinted at that the lad has a serious drug problem, which is why Eamonn said he always needed money.

So again, the abuse of power issue comes into play - Schofield is arranging photo shoots with his mother for The Sun to rehabilitate his reputation and the lad is receiving money from a millionaire

McGreevy COULD sell his story and give his version of events to the Daily Mail but he knows The Sun, now aligned with Schofield, will trash him.

Again, it's an abuse of power issue, not a TWO GAYS UGH issue.

Meh. I'm seeing more of a Two Gays issue with an NDA issue and now a Drugs issue.

I don't have any issue with consenting adults fucking. I don't have any issue with a rich person fucking a poor person or vice-versa. I don't actually have a problem with people who fuck each other and work together, even if one of them is at a higher level in the business. As long as it's consensual and everyone's of legal age I'm okay with it.

I also don't have any problem with Schofield out with his mother and trying to get some good publicity. He could probably use some good publicity.

Are you a nonce R206?

Damn, how young is young when the age of consent in the UK is 16?

@r206, You're wrong. Schofield injected himself into this boy's life when he was a young teen. Schofield is rich, famous and 34 years older. If you think that doesn't have an effect on a young boy's life, you're nuts. I also don't believe Schofield waited until the boy was 18 to have sex with him. That's the age a pedo like Schofield would start losing interest, not starting a sexual relationship

If the young man is on drugs now I certainly understand why

R209 has got to be trolling. How can you say

[quote]a pedo like Schofield

when no-one has so much as accused him of that?

Oh look, what a coincidence that the Sun managed to capture the exact moment phil the perve told his mum that he was fired.

You know the Trans Haters and the constant pedo paranoid accusers come here throwing cheap accusations around.

It's all part of the constant and continuing right wing attack on LGBT people.

The right wing is made up of fucking Nazis who will kill us all if we let them.

R209 the age of consent in the UK is 16. The only way the relationship would be illegal is if Schofield was a teacher or direct authority over the boy. So he wouldn't have to wait until the boy is 18. I am not sure how old he was and if it was an illegal relationship that means he was under 16 at the time or that Schofield was his boss.

And thank Goodness, Holly is going to be "open and honest".

I guarantee you that cunt has vacationed with phil and his boyfriend

They need to get rid of that backstabbing bitch Holly.

[quote]I guarantee you that cunt has vacationed with phil and his boyfriend

But Phillip said he only shagged the guy 5 times and it was just a friendship!

I’d eat his ass like ice cream.

The boy looks pretty young in this picture 12-13 maybe?

There's 2 polarised positions forming, neither based in truth.

1. Schofield is innocent, he did nothing wrong, it's just homophobia

2. Schofield is a paedo, he had sex with the boy when he was underage

Officially he was 15, I understand, R218. Gay-hating loons, and morons like R209, tend to choose whichever age they think sounds most salacious. Some are saying 10.

Surely, if Schofield was lying when he said that MMcG isn't bound by any injunction, then MMcG could speak out; and if he feels that Phillip is white-washing the situation, wouldn't he be able to contradict him? Until he does so, then this feels like a manufactured pile of BS.

(And I can't stand Schofield. Snide, pass-agg bitch.)

What's your pointless point that you're trying to sell here R218, man appears in a picture with someone he ends up fucking many years later? If that's the crime then hands up lock me up, I've probably been in a few photos with underage kids at the time that I've hooked up with later on, they're called school pictures.

I'm more inclined to postion One. This scandal broke a couple of weeks ago with wall to wall carping coverage every day since. Nobody has accused Schofield of fucking McGreevy when he was underage. No one.

How is that not true, R219?

@r221 The point is he started injecting (grooming) himself into the boy's life to at some point have sex with him at a very inappropriate age

[quote]Surely, if Schofield was lying when he said that MMcG isn't bound by any injunction, then MMcG could speak out; and if he feels that Phillip is white-washing the situation, wouldn't he be able to contradict him? Until he does so, then this feels like a manufactured pile of BS.

Why would McGreevy speak out at this point?

His name is known by people online and most of the photos shared are of when he was much younger.

But in The Real World he still has some anonymity.

Schofield is paying for his lawyers and they're clearly still in touch. That money ends as soon as McGreevy opens his mouth, and for what?

As I posted, Schofield and The Sun have clearly done a deal, which means that if McGreevy sells his story to another tabloid then The Sun will go after him.

He's not yet 30, he's had mental health and addiction issues and he'll never work in the media again. Schofield knows he won't be selling his story so he can put his version of events across.

@r211, That picture...

Phillip: "Mom, I lost my job because I'm a nounce like my brother"

Mom: "Do you still have a 100 million in the bank?"

Phillip: "Yes"

Mom: "I don't see a problem"

R223, before you state (as you did) that PS was "grooming" MMcG, do you have any evidence that MMcG has ever even alleged this? Not that such an allegation would necessarily be true. But it doesn't look like MMcG has even alleged this.

R223, what proof do you have of that accusation?

Have McGreevy's parents accused Schofield of doing this? Where is this coming from?

^ The picture shows he knew the kid. Schofield admitted they had a relationship when he was 12-13 years old. Schofield claims it wasn't sexual until he was 18. I don't believe him

That is just wild homophobic conjecture on your part though R223, just because you want something to be true in order to fulfil your own fantasy doesn't make it true, go have a long look in the mirror weirdo.

I know 12 and 13 year olds, I've been in photos with them. Does that mean I'm fucking them? (I'm not)

You have no evidence, no proof, not even any accusations - just Schofield is gay and he knew this kid when he was a teenager so he must have fucked him when he was underage.

Okay, R228, you're a fucking looney-toon.

You're dismissed.

^ Just because you don't want to see that a 50 year old man having a relationship with a young teenage boy is creepy doesn't make me, a known homosexual, a homophobe

@r230 You are way too personally invested in this, why?

"You're dismissed. "

You're a jerk 😠

R218, the network has not covered up and gone to all this trouble for someone who was 16 yrs old when he and phil hooked up

They just wouldn't have.

What's the betting that R231 R232 and R 233 are the same delusional poster? Does make you an ageist piece of shit though, because apparently you're allowed to police appropriate age gaps? Do you have your Excel spreadsheet all prepared with a sliding scale of what is appropriate or not? Perhaps based on which gender is dating which gender?

Fuckwit.

^ Exactly, they knew about the relationship 3 years ago when they made Phillip "come out". Why did it all of a sudden get... icky?

I'm a different poster. But congratulations. phil is going to get away with everything he's done. holly will keep her job, And later on, scuzzy, pervert phil will probably get another job. It will be a small job. But he'll still work

Sure Jan.

Fuckwit.

@r234, Hey asshole of course it's me, your detective work is nothing short of brilliant 🙄

Why are you so upset about all of this? Is there something you'd like to share with the class?

Me thinks DolomiteSprint has a few teenagers in the closet 😏

Schofield discussed on ITV, Joan Collins quickly cut short by Piers Morgan.

^ Being Gay and being a nounce are two totally different things. One is a complete identity the other is a creepy sexual predator

It's NONCE not NOUNCE

NOT

ON

NORMAL

COURTYARD

EXERCISE

NONCE

Ok, pedo then 🙄

I don’t think I’d even heard the word “nonce” before last week and now everybody seems to be using it.

That photo of Schofield with his mother is peak cringe. Could it be any more blatantly staged? He’s also using his elderly mother as a prop in a transparent attempt to elevate his public image.

Wow he was cute (watch for clips)

Must have been a good day for him.

[quote] Could it be any more blatantly staged? He’s also using his elderly mother as a prop in a transparent attempt to elevate his public image.

Predators of children have no shame

Joan is funny. Nobody briefed Joan on why Schofield is "coming out"? Sad. Of course she's old school and she's right about in normal circumstances (which she thought this was) nobody needs mature personalities having big coming outs.

R244 couldn't agree more, it's disgusting to wheel out your elderly mother for a staged photo designed for sympathy. I did feel sorry for him when I watched that staged interview where he said he'd felt suicidal but this is a step beyond

^wheeling out his ancient mother is utterly disgusting

When he said he was suicidal it was so stupid and desperate I would have said why don't you? You have nothing left but your theatrics. Then he stages that disgusting photo shoot with his mother. One can easily believe the worst of this narcissistic creep. I can't wait for the family photo with the wife and daughters.

And the last lawyers in the world this guy should use are Schofield's. He must be a very stupid young man. Perfect for grooming.

The young man should go after ITV for all it's worth.

Schofield the scumbag even makes his coming out a dramatic event. Mr Bravery! The weeping! The cheering! Meanwhile the wife and daughters are WTF?

Phillip needs a lip transplant

They were of age and consenting. It's none of our business.

How do you know that? He knew the kid from when he was 11. And Schofield is a manipulative pathological liar who has gotten away his whole life with lying to people and treating them like shit. Then he gets on TV and pulls the suicide card. Phil there's a skyscraper in Times Square with a bar at the top made just for people like you. Do your wife and daughters a favor. They are the people you really betrayed. No excuse in this day and age.

The more ardent haters of Schofield have that weird vigilante vibe about them. They're rightly disgusted at the thought that someone might have been groomed, but we just don't know that that happened here. But that doesn't matter to them; they've decided he's guilty and that's that.

They'd be type who'd throw a brick through the window of a neighbour even if that neighbour was cleared of all wrongdoing. They're always chavs as well saying things like: "'Ere we know 'e's a wrongun, lock 'im up!!"

I should add I'm not accusing anyone of DL of being like that, I just get that vibe from the more illiterate posts on social media. The irony being that they've probably raised kids who are constantly in trouble with the Police, but view them as their 'little angels'.

Here is an obsessively exhaustive timeline of events. Looks like it was created before the recent interview in which PS confirmed the sexual nature of the relationship. But it gives an incredibly detailed play-by-play of the entire thing, including analysis of sent and received tweets between the pair, from 2011 to now.

[quote] before the recent interview in which PS confirmed the sexual nature of the relationship. But it gives an incredibly detailed play-by-play of the entire thing,

So it's a play by play that omitted or lied about significant facts, some we know now and maybe more we don't

[quote] The more ardent haters of Schofield have that weird vigilante vibe about them.

Definitely. I’m not a fan of the man whatsoever, but these people are freaking disproportionate in their hatred and obsession. There are infinitely more dangerous and hateful human beings out there; such as war criminal Putin and rapist and alleged pedophile Donald Trump. Perspective.

R258 Yeah I dunno if its lies, mainly it's just some extra information. The timeline shows that there was little engagement between the two before the kid turned 18, which to me absolves PS from the grooming accusations. Of course the link I posted concludes that PS waiting until the kid was 18 to start tweeting with him more regularly shows clear intent. But like, yeah? And? Would they have rather he not waited? I have no dog in this race. I think it's a bit of a witch hunt if I'm being honest. It's not a good look for Schofield but also it's not like he's R. Kelly either. Did he deserve to lose it all? He's certainly tainted his reputation and maybe that's irretrievably bad for the ITV brand. But for fuck's sake, he didn't kill anyone.

Bizarre opening monologue from Holly this morning, framing herself as the wronged party. No acknowledgement of the fact that she, along with Schofield, has recently been accused of creating a "toxic" environment behind the scenes.

All the parties look and behave like trash in that special British trash style.

I thought Holly was going to be potentially leaving the Couch after all of this... but I guess not

He’s like a cockroach.

Like brother like brother.

Oh my God he's a poofter!

He's paying for the disastrous way the Brits honored Jimmy Saville. One of the most monstrous men in 20th century British history who remember was a good friend of the astonishingly bright King Charles.

R267 I think you're right. I was reading some commentary last night about it and many were likening him to Jimmy Saville and it was very much from a point of view of: "Saville got away with it, Schofield won't". Which I suppose explains why some are so keen to level accusations at him.

That said, some of them clearly see it solely as 'entertainment'. They're bored to the point that going online and typing out multiple hateful accusations a day - while munching popcorn - brings them joy.

I'm not saying he's innocent, but the fact is that no one knows (yet) if he did anything improper. He's saying he didn't and there's no evidence to suggest otherwise at this point. Yet some are so convinced they're right.

Schofield having a consensual relationship with this runner is hardly comparable to the abuse Savile committed over decades.

I know I'm adding to it, but I can't believe how much traction this story has.

R269 If we’re honest at least SOME of the criticism is mild homophobia. They go wild when you say that, and all the usual “I have gay friends” quotes are trotted out, but there’s definitely a whiff of distaste that it’s two men.

R270, there is definitely some distaste. Ruth Davidson (former leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, lesbian) was on Have I Got News For You recently and she said that Schofield had "dipped his wick" in a younger man. The panellists grimaced and the audience groaned - people don't want to think of two men having sex.

R270 I hate when straights react that way to any reference to gay sex (particularly given the sheer amount of previously “gay” sexual activities straights do themselves; straight porn is full of it). Maybe it’s partly that Schofield isn’t young or particularly attractive now, and nobody wants to think of him having sexytime.

R271 I'm surprised a lesbian deliberately invited that reaction. But then maybe she finds two men having sex as distasteful as straight people. Silly cow.

[quote][R270] I hate when straights react that way to any reference to gay sex (particularly given the sheer amount of previously “gay” sexual activities straights do themselves; straight porn is full of it). Maybe it’s partly that Schofield isn’t young or particularly attractive now, and nobody wants to think of him having sexytime.

IT IS THE AGE GAP AND POWER IMBALANCE!!!

It wasn't just a fleeting relationship.

Schofield was in his 50s when followed the guy on Twitter when he was 17, helped him get a job on his show, worked with him, had a sexual relationship and when the relationship went sour the lad was moved on.

At least that's Schofield's version of events. He was chatting to at least one other 17 year old as well.

A straight man doing that would be treated just as harshly.

And Schofield has been shameful in exploiting his coming out and then citing homophobia as the reason for the backlash. He'd still be in the closet taking his wife to award shows if it hadn't looked like the story was going to break

R274 In his interview, he said the guy was 19 when they started a relationship (if you can call it that).

I'm sure the response will be "well, he's lying!" but there's no evidence to suggest that; it's just opinion. That's where the "improper, but not illegal" comment comes from.

The article you link contains the following text: "The messages were just friendly chats between the two, with the most recent ones dated February 2020". I think it's odd for him to exchange messages with a guy who was 17 to 20 (the messages were exchanged over three years), but if it was just "friendly chat" then it wasn't illegal.

It's a classic example of putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5, and the fact most people on the internet don't seem to want to spend any time researching what they talk about. They just make an instant decision and then act as though it's fact.

R274 must be a woman. A gay man would know that people groaning and grimacing (as I related above) are doing so out of disgust for gay sex, not out of disapproval of an age gap.

Showing the world how petty, spiteful, and judgemental you are, old blighty. Bunch of cunts, you are.

[quote][R274] In his interview, he said the guy was 19 when they started a relationship (if you can call it that).

Again, this isn't just a random hook up between 2 adults.

Schofield knew the boy, they have a mutual friend (Simon Schofield), Schofield helped the boy get a job working on the show, he was an authority figure.

It's not grooming, it's not abuse, but it was not an appropriate relationship for a 19 year to be put in by someone with so much clout.

And R274, liking your own tweets within seconds of posting them is great idea! I'll try that myself.

^ Since Schofield has lied about everything else in his life what makes you think he's telling the truth about how old the boy was before he fucked him? 🤔

R279 What else? Do you know him well?

I'm not saying he hasn't lied, I'm just saying we lack evidence to definitively say he has.

Everything seems to be trial by social media nowadays where the public decide if someone's guilty or innocent; often based solely on opinion. I don't see why so many people are so sure they know. If they're privy to evidence I'd love to see it.

^ Because most guys who want young boys don't wait until they're adults, because that kind of defeats the goal

R281 Again that's just an assumption based on behaviour of other people. I'm only willing to deem someone guilty upon seeing or reading real evidence.

I'm sure if someone randomly accused you of something, you wouldn't like it if everyone believed them based solely on their word.

^ A million Catholic Priests can't be wrong 😏

[quote]Because most guys who want young boys don't wait until they're adults

Where's the evidence that Schofield likes "young boys"? The only evidence seems to be that you've simply decided he does.

As far as I can see, Schofield's behavior with this younger man may have been in poor taste but it wasn't illegal.

All this fuss over nothing.

R15, I agree; when you make the big bucks go commercial if you're looking for some intimacy.

Have you noticed how much Schofield looks like the man who on Will and Grace would play piano for Debbie Reynolds

The problems are two things we definitely know; Phil knew this kid from when he was 11 and Phil is a pathological liar. He lies compulsively. And for pity. You can't give credence to anything he says. And the fact that he lied to his wife and daughters is disgusting. Where not talking about even the 60 or 70s here. The guy's a pig. Though he's no Saville. Why doesn't this kid come to his defense and say hey I was 18 when we started a relationship. He sure is making himself scarce.

“The astonishingly bright King Charles”?!

Someone’s gagging for a knighthood!

I’m pleased he was correct on issues of organic farming and British fashion, doesn’t make him less of a twit. Charles is a neglected poor little rich boy with daddy issues and fell for the dubious charms of anyone of power who gave him attention and laughed at his jokes. He was the ultimate mark, really.

^ Yes, I'm quite sure you're right... 🙄

R288 Lying about the relationship was bad, but I don't have any hate for gay men who married women in times when homophobia was rife. Of course it's horrible for the wife, but the only thing that can be truly blamed is homophobia. After all, if homosexuality had always been 100% accepted, there would be no stigma to being gay and no need for anyone to lie about their sexual orientation.

Regarding the other guy, even though there are photos of him on social media, you've got to go looking for them. So he's still anonymous to the vast majority of the public and likely wants to keep it that way. So I don't blame him for staying under the radar.

[quote] I don't have any hate for gay men who married women in times when homophobia was rife.

They could easily have stayed a bachelor. I know multiple men who have never married. Getting married to a woman shows cowardice and conformity.

I'm exactly Scofield's age - he had no need to get married. This wasn't Victorian Britain, or even the 50s. So long as he didn't get caught cottaging or something, at worst, he'd have got jokes about 'the right girl'.

Yes, we've had unmarried PMs (Edward Heath).. my great uncle was unmarried all his life. Perfectly acceptable and fine in the UK.

R292 I'm not saying they're completely innocent, I just think putting the blame solely on the guy, while ignoring homophobia, is foolhardy.

Some gay men are made to feel such shame that their denial is strong to the point they may even believe they're not gay.

[quote]Some gay men are made to feel such shame that their denial is strong to the point they may even believe they're not gay.

Well, that's a completely different thing, isn't it? They've convinced themselves that they are straight? Okay, but doesn't explain why he didn't just separate from his wife when he wanted to fuck men.

It's no good blaming homophobia for Schofield's marriage. By getting married he perpetuated that hemophobia. It's much braver to be out than hide in the closet.

He could have been out and proud since the 1980s, been a role model to younger people, or just shown it doesn't matter.

[quote] been a role model to younger people

Apparently that's precisely what he tried to be, but maybe a little too "younger"

R297 I think we both know that being out in the 1980s would have seen the death of any TV presenting career. It wouldn't surprise me if he had pressure to marry and have children - in other words, be seen to live a "normal life".

I mean, that scenario exists today. I'm sure we can all think of a few gay men in the public eye who aren't officially out. In 2023.

R297 has a very rose tinted view of the 80’s. Or even the 90’s or 00’s. No way he’d have celebrated for being out.

Back in the 80’s the tabloids outed Allo Allo star Gordon Kaye and he faced all kinds of attacks in the media and calls for him to be sacked (simply because he was gay). Don’t apply the standards of nowadays to back then; it was brutal.

That said a lot has changed since PS got married. I think it was probably a lavender marriage and to their mutual advantage. He got to shag younger guys in his private flat while rolling out his wife and kids for special events and photo ops. As we saw with him using his elderly mother the other day for a “touching” and highly staged photoshoot, he views people as props to be used. Didn’t he actually refer in an interview to his daughters as being “assets”. That comment, along with “I no longer gave a brother” reveals a lot about how the guy sees relationships in transactional terms.

A lot of gay men in the 80s did not get married. This guy was a total user willing to sacrifice anyone including his daughters which is horrible. Then he goes on TV being cheered for admitting his gayness when he already knew he was gay when he got married and had children. He should have been booed by the entire LGBT community. So what if he kills himself. Go ahead no loss to anyone. A fitting end to a seedy story. And everybody who worked on his show said he was an arrogant jerk who was endlessly condescending and didn't know anybody's name. And then he hauls out his mother! Scumbag.

[quote][R297] has a very rose tinted view of the 80’s. Or even the 90’s or 00’s. No way he’d have celebrated for being out.

Graham Norton was an out gay man hosting a tv show in the 90s.

When Strictly started in 2004 two of the four professional judges were out gay men.

Alan Carr had a tv show in 2009. And Paul O'Grady was never off the tv.

I grew up with Larry Grayson, Kenny Everett, John Inman, Frankie Howerd and Russell Harty as big names. They were the wrong types of gay though.

And when Phillip was hosting the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party in the late 80s there were loads of openly gay music acts in the charts and plenty of publicly ambiguous but blatantly gay people.

And there are still some tv people who are widely assumed to be gay but have never come out. Stephen Mulhern, Andi Peters, Louis Walsh.

R302, my friend was mocking me the other day for not realising Andi Peters is gay! Once it's pointed out, it's so obvious.

I've always assumed he was gay just from his personality and deliberate ambiguity over his personal life. A few years ago he set up a male model agency.

I remember a rumour going round my secondary school in the mid-90s that Andi Peters and D:Ream lead singer Peter Cunnah were ‘bum-chums’.

There were always rumours about Pete Cunnah, especially when he was one of the first cover stars of Attitude. I was told back in the 00s that Things Can Only Get Better was written about his HIV diagnosis, But then any moderately attractive person was gay back then.

I've never understood why Andi Peters has remained in the closet. He's as camp as Christmas, so everyone knows. So he either thinks coming out is pointless, or he's got homophobic family.

R9 Some people eat breakfast mid-morning

R307 it’s a case of Dale Winton syndrome for sure. He only needs to open his mouth and speak in order to out himself.

There's a hideous Scottish MP called John Nicolson who used to be a newsreader and came out in his early 40s when it was safe to do so. As a student he had been notoriously homophobic, attacking gay and lesbian groups at his university.

When he came out he said he wanted people to know there were different types of gay men other than Dale Winton, as if being camp was a bad thing.

This year he was ridiculed for changing his twitter profile pic to a really old pic of him before he entered politics. Not surprising when he has put on a huge amount of weight and wears shirts with very tight collars which makes his orange face go a lovely shade of orange/red.

He's turned into Mrs Doubtfire.

[quote]any moderately attractive person was gay back then.

"Back then"?

^ Right, these days even "moderately attractive" doesn't pass DL standards 😏

Dale Winton started presenting Supermarket Sweep the year Schofield got married.

Who can forget Dale's Hole In The Wall. I'm sure someone came up with that concept just for the title. Their first choice was Glory Hole.

That musicals record shop in London Dress Circle was a veritable beehive of gossip. I remember one of the clerks saying that Andi Peters and John Barrowman were always little bitches fighting over the newest twinks like Take That’s Jason Orange.

Svhofield was horribly miscast in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the West End. Joseph is meant to be a beauty and Schofield was just OK looking .

At least a young, straight bloke wasn’t found dead in his pool like the one at Michael Barrymore’s. Now THAT was a scandal.

ITV boss being grilled by MPs

I find it odd that MPs need to get involved in this. Would they intervene if a similar relationship was uncovered in an organisation where neither participant was 'famous'?

Rhetorical question, obviously, it just seems overkill for me. I'm sure ITV is able to investigate its own employees and refer the matter to the Police *if* it were deemed necessary.

The select committee always makes me laugh, too, because no MP can answer a straight question. They constantly dodge queries raised in TV interviews. Yet stick them on a committee and they start grilling people and demanding answers as though they're ever forthcoming!

ITV did an investigation a couple of years ago. Internal investigations are a joke. They asked Schofield if the rumors were true. He said no. Then they asked the kid. He said no. Investigation done.

Apparently HM The King will be asked to personally lead the final British investigation this fall. That should’ve signaled the end. But the UN Secratery General has gone on the record as also wanting more details of how “Phil pumped his daddy load into this hustler’s young slut trench”.

[quote]The select committee always makes me laugh, too, because no MP can answer a straight question. They constantly dodge queries raised in TV interviews. Yet stick them on a committee and they start grilling people and demanding answers as though they're ever forthcoming!

It was quite something watching pompous old Scottish queen John Nicolson MP asking about standards at ITV and their care of a junior employee when his own party took 7 years to deal with a complaint made by a 19 year old that he had been groped by a man in his 30s. He used to be a newsreader and he had prepared his questions to try and land a killer Paxman blow but just came across as rude.

I felt the 3 ITV people handled it as well as they could. They gave detailed answers to questions and corrected a lot of assumptions. At one point an MP made a dismissive remark about Carolyn McCall's £3m salary and she pointed out that she was paid less than a million a year and would be paid a bonus if her targets are met. Not uncommon in Chief Exec roles.

𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩

ENTERTAINMENT LAWYER 06/13 **10**

Sticking to the same country, don't be surprised when three other people come forward about the newly out presenter and how their stories are very similar to the one that has been made public. The only reason the presenter came out was he was pulling a Kevin Spacey.

McCall was the one who fired Piers because he called Megs a liar. There was no investigation. He was kicked right out the door. Now Megs claims you can have a two hour high speed chase ending in catastrophe in midtown Manhattan in the evening. Well maybe between two red traffic lights while you're being blocked by street construction and a stopped garbage truck.

Piers Morgan wasn't sacked for "calling Meghan a liar".

ITV shouldn't have allowed him to use his platform to continually attack her, considering their personal history, and he walked off set when he was given the most mild rebuke by Alex Beresford, the weather presenter after one of his rants.

Not sure there has ever been such unprofessional bullying behaviour from a tv presenter, but Morgan left humiliated, shown up for the bully he is.

R320 He must have been pleased with his "gotcha" about the term Tower Block Tracy because he's made several tweets about it on his own account.

Mrs Doubtfire herself

I dreamed last night that I logged onto the DL and saw "Philip Schofield is dead to me". Considering I don't actually watch This Morning and never have, my subconscious is clearly far too invested in this story.

He was sacked for calling her a liar. And McCall wanted him to apologize after getting a call from Megs(which he didn't know until later) and he said fuck it I won't. My problem with him is he keeps interrupting people and won't let them talk.

I’m so tired of seeing this old person thread month after month

The YouTube videos of the runner are intensely annoying.

More dirt coming out next month.

Clicks for Murdoch. Great.

A click that has nothing on it.

The link doesn't work R331.

There was a BBC documentary on this week that covered the phone hacking scandal at UK tabloids and gave background info to Prince Harry's case against the Mirror.

Sienna Miller was targeted by hacks when she started dating Jude Law and they found out she was pregnant through phone hacking and paying for access to her medical records. At one point Rebekah Brooks/Wade spoke to Sienna's rep and said they wouldn't run the story. Then the "Sienna Pregnant!" story appeared in a US tabloid so that allowed the UK tabloids to report on it.

Tabloid scum.

Ghhji

Well said, R334

What about me?

Well Holly Willoughby has now quit This Morning as well. Ostensibly due to a plot to kidnap and murder her! It's certainly been a shockingly dramatic year for her and Philip.

Although I never really watched the show I think she came across well as a host. For years you couldn't switch on ITV without seeing her & Philip present something or advertise some shit.

I'm not a fan of Holly's - she's basically Jennie Gresham from This Time with Alan Partridge - but I don't understand all the posts on social media insisting that the kidnap plot was a hoax. The man in question has been charged. Do people really think the police are colluding with a daytime TV presenter?

Exactly R338 it might be the straw that broke the camel's back for Holly but I don't doubt she's fearful of what some unhinged person is capable of. She doesn't want to be the next Jill Dando