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Phillip Schofield has come out as gay

999 replies

catinb0oots · 07/02/2020 09:59

Blimey. Married for 27 years.

OP posts:
bohemia14 · 07/02/2020 11:40

I'm a similar age to Philip. I've always had gay friends - it was perfectly possible to be openly gay in the 80s.

1forsorrow · 07/02/2020 11:41

He mentions AIDS in that article and that is something I had forgotten, all the accepting gay people took a step back and suddenly they were feared and homophobia increased. It was a difficult time. I'm a few years old than PS and remember very bad homophobia in the 70s, then it getting more relaxed and then with AIDS it was bad again.

Attitudes to many things changed so fast then, my husband was a young PC when attempting to commit suicide was a crime and he remembers standing on duty outside a hospital room waiting to see if someone survived so they could be charged, I remember the unmarried mothers home at the top of my road, girls who looked 13 or 14 waiting to use the phone box you would hear them begging to be allowed home, begging their mothers to just see the baby and you would see them around when they were pregnant and then for a few weeks with the baby and then they disappeared, mum probably back home and baby to a new family. The weddings where everyone would joke about how big the bouquet was, a big bouquet to disguise the bump. Middle England in 1970 was a very different place to 1979.

Racism as well, spotty boys complaining about them stealing our women and looking at them thinking, God I was never your woman. The questions about sex and was it size that mattered. I'd never slept with anyone before I got married and I had no idea if a white penis was any different to a brown one.

It sounds like the dark ages and you know in many ways it was, but hey we've had Brexit and we voted to go back to that golden age.

WhatKatyDidNot · 07/02/2020 11:41

There's a lot of sympathy for MH issues on MN but this story, which could well have cause MH issues over the years is treated with disdain.

No. What's being treated with disdain is the rush to laud Schofield as brave and finally blossoming as his true self and the only interest in his wife and children - who are the fallout - is to praise them for being supportive. God forbid they should be anything else. As ever, the man is front and centre and any damage he leaves in his wake is glossed over.

That is what is causing disdain.

kenandbarbie · 07/02/2020 11:41

He knew before he was married he wasn't in love with Steph. He says it himself in that article someone linked.

Letsnotusemyname · 07/02/2020 11:41

There seems to be a lot of he’s brave/cowardly etc talk on here.

Talk about his ‘poor wife’ etc

The truth is we don't know. We don’t know how he feels, how his wife feels, his children, relatives, friends etc.

We don’t know who knew what, when etc.

I can imagine that the run upto this was stressful for quite a few and the stress won’t have gone. You don’t come out just the once.

Not nice to be under the spotlight like this for anyone involved.

People still live lies, even today. For all sorts of reasons.

They fear for careers, what others think, rejection, upsetting others. Living a lie seems the easier option. Pretending to be what you think you should be becomes a norm. Some manage it, others crumble, some come out later.

I have a feeling that my Dad might have been gay and lived a lie until he died at 87. Odd things he said to me and my, gay, children + my mum’s reaction. No evidence.

In his day it wasn't clever to be out, it’d finish careers, prosecutions, family rejection etc and so many stayed in the closet with the door firmly locked.

Of course once you’ve started living a lie its difficult to come clean and be yourself. The longer you live a lie and pretend to be something else the harder it is to be your real self.

Not an easy situation for him + family to be in. Some of the comments here(and those deleted?) show how being gay isn't quite as easy as some like to think.

I do feel that others have been making mischief for him - the tabloids have done this before.

kenandbarbie · 07/02/2020 11:41

Sorry he says he loved her but wasn't sure what 'in love' was.

SarahAndQuack · 07/02/2020 11:42

I'm just gobsmacked by the sheer homophobic wilful ignorance on this thread.

Last year two women were attacked on public transport by people who objected to them being gay. It was all over the newspapers.

But oh, right, homophobia is a thing of the past and there's no reason someone wouldn't have come out 30 years ago. Yeah right. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't fancy the threat of random physical violence any time they stepped out of the door.

heath48 · 07/02/2020 11:43

Always thought he was gay.Bizarre that he needs to tell the World about it.

Feel sorry for his wife and daughters.

getyourarseoffthequattro · 07/02/2020 11:43

I'm a similar age to Philip. I've always had gay friends - it was perfectly possible to be openly gay in the 80s

maybe in some places, certainly not all.

AlunWynsKnee · 07/02/2020 11:44

Elton John came out as gay in 1988 and had come out as bisexual well before that. It hadn't ruined his career. Man in musical theatre is gay would hardly have been smashing a stereotype.
Anyway I hope his wife knew a very long time ago and she hasn't been living an unwitting lie.

dunnyplop · 07/02/2020 11:44

I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't fancy the threat of random physical violence any time they stepped out of the door.

tbf he's on TV so I'm sure that a risk regardless.

womenspeakout · 07/02/2020 11:44

I'm a similar age to Philip. I've always had gay friends - it was perfectly possible to be openly gay in the 80s.

Not being a children's TV presenter it wasn't.

I feel for him, his wife and children especially, their lives will be turned upside down.

I wonder though, he says his wife is very supportive, and she may well be, I wonder how long it will last though, when a divorce kicks in, it will probably change their whole dynamic.

Mummyzzz044 · 07/02/2020 11:44

He could have come out as gay... shame people still have to come out rather than just dating their preferred type or sex.

He chose to hide it and marry a woman. I dont think he done that easily. It was probably very difficult. Then with kids he didnt want to break up their marriage..

But I would have respected him more for coming out when the children were young save wasting all those years with his wife.

She obviously wouldn't want to start over, dating, she thought she was with the man she would spend forever with.

He is going to eventually fall in love with someone, explore who is he. Whilst shes got trust issues blaming herself. Heartbreaking.

But then of course I dont know a bloody thing about their marriage. Thats just how I would feel. That my whole marriage was a lie.

MrsArchchancellorRidcully · 07/02/2020 11:44

I had NO idea. Good luck to him. None of my business.

PineappleDanish · 07/02/2020 11:44

Probably the Sun - they're having a great week after breaking the Derek Mackay story yesterday.

Kljnmw3459 · 07/02/2020 11:45

Why now, I wonder? It must be a blow to his family, especially his wife, to hear that he's not been happy. Hopefully she will find the strength to know this isn't because of her. I would find it heartbreaking and difficult to come to terms with it tbh but perhaps she's stronger than me and has a great support network around her.

GeraltOfRivia · 07/02/2020 11:45

Also, he was a kids tv presenter. He wasn't selling his brand of entertainment to adults. If you weren't a panto dame the idea of being gay and in front of kids was a no no. Section 28 was the 80s. So the notion he had no reason to hide is a nonsense.

RJnomore1 · 07/02/2020 11:45

I suspect many straight people who aren’t ‘in love’ get married too.

And yes in the 90s it was different; it was a shock when each gay person came out then. Even Elton John. It was still career damaging - and still is in sport and in the movie industry.

BonnesVacances · 07/02/2020 11:45

So much speculation. Hmm For all we know, Steph encouraged him to come out and is sitting at home feeling proud that he's done it. If she'd known him for 5 years before getting into a relationship with him (as per the old interview) it's extremely likely she was aware of his relationships with men and didn't mind.

Alsohuman · 07/02/2020 11:45

Sorry he says he loved her but wasn't sure what 'in love' was

I love the bones of my bloke and have for over 20 years. I’m not sure what “in love” means either. It hasn’t stopped us from being very, very happy.

sunshinesupermum · 07/02/2020 11:45

sarcelle Not because he is gay, just that he has used his wife as a beard to pursue fame and fortune. It is always the women that get pushed aside so that the man can go off into his new world while she is wondering what the hell her marriage had been about.

You've described exactly what it is like.

GabsAlot · 07/02/2020 11:46

maybe his wife knew who says shes only just found out? i rckon someone was going to out him so thats why it seems sudden

GarlicSoup · 07/02/2020 11:47

So Phillip Schofield announces he’s gay. Crikey Boris Johnson will be announcing he is a Conservative next!

Kittenbittenmitten · 07/02/2020 11:48

Any ideas on who the other "straight" presenter is or are we not allowed to say? It's not Eamonn is it? Grin

GFJoe · 07/02/2020 11:49

But oh, right, homophobia is a thing of the past and there's no reason someone wouldn't have come out 30 years ago

Much better to deceive someone by getting married to create that air of normality eh. He didn't have to openly come out if he didn't want to. He also didn't have to get married and wreck someone else's life.