Philip Schofield interview on BBC News/iplayer now.

[JeandeServiette]

Anyone else watching?

I wasn't supposed to be up this early but what the heck.

You have no evidence that anything else is going to come out. You've no evidence that PS is threatening the runner. It's all just like the accusations of NDAs, injunctions and superinjunctions. Just made up gossip.

I'm wondering if the reason he provided a character reference for the revenge porn blackmail guy and also didn't report his child-abusing brother to the police is that he knew they both had enough dirt on him to take him down too.

I hate the way the media allowed him to get away with stuff and is continuing to allow him to manipulate the public.

I'm a bit concerned that PS is apparently recently still in contact with MM, hiring a lawyer for him etc. I wonder what media savvy independent advice MM has been getting throughout, if any? Other than that lawyer in the past two weeks? I wonder if it's a bit of a Monica Lewinsky scenario? MM still in thrall?

Is there a link to Carol’s interview? I would like to watch it or read it if it is not a live interview

The guilt trip ‘do you want me to die?’

ffs. I don’t really care.

Carol McGiifin said that she was hardly ever in the studios and she had no idea why the previous runner left. Dan Wootton tried to float the allegation that he'd been given the push to make room for the new runner. But he had no proof of that.

If he was my child I would be thoroughly ashamed of him. What with him and his brother I would wonder what the hell had gone so spectacularly wrong in my family to have produced those two.

He's 27. He doesn't work in entertainment anymore. If he's still in thrall, that's up to him.

Whatever has happened no one deserves to die. Really in the grand scheme of things much worse things have happened, people have done some horrific things many of them famous and in the public eye such as politicians and they have not faced the level of scrutiny or speculation. It is disproportionate and very dangerous.

Exactly?!

Trying to conjure up the ‘what if it were your child?!’ defence on someone like Phillip Schofield, of all people.

Take it somewhere else.

I don't agree with the statement that it would have been OK if it was a heterosexual affair. If MM was a woman that he meet as a minor then had an affair with. He seems under the impression that would be OK? How old are his daughters? That bit in itself imo says a lot about his logic.

Yes still the power imbalance - hiring a lawyer for him. Feels controlling and manipulative.

The thing is that rumours have been going on for at least three years that he'd groomed a young runner he'd met as a teenager, then got him sacked after MM had publicly declared his love for him at the NTAs, that Eammon, Ruth and Rylan had complained and been dropped fron This Morning. Also that Phil and Holly were toxic off camera and behind the scenes and the "coming out" story was a deflection as this story was beginning to break. This has all been being said online since at least 2020.

What has now come out confirms some of those rumours were indeed true, so people naturally wonder if all of it is true. We don't know, but it's natural to wonder.

What we do know is that Phil met MM when he was a teenager, took him under his wing, got him a job, started a relationship with him once he was a legal age then had him moved on when things got complicated. When there is a huge power imbalance and the other party (MM) is in a vulnerable position then it stinks of #MeToo and grooming. It's certainly wrong, and something he should indeed have been sacked for.

It’s the way he minimises it all and attempts to justify himself that makes me angry. All this
“oh it was just a bit of chit chat between us on twitter, that’s perfectly normal”
“I have lots of followers, I give out career advice, that’s normal isn’t it?”

And he denies it was a relationship even when they were actually having sex, apparently they were “just mates”
Wtf? He’s making it worse!

He is still not telling the truth.

No-one’s saying he deserves to die. They’re saying they don’t care.

He’s a manipulative narcissist. Sorry if people don’t care. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is pure speculation but it is quite possible that the reason the both men grew up to be abusers of young people originates in their own childhood.

I've not been watching about it because I know that the media talk bollocks.
So this guy isn't underaged, just younger, Philip had an affair and now it's all being blown out of proportion.
Why can't you all see it like that? It must be tiring being so perfect!
I hope he can't read stuff like this because I'd be feeling suicidal too!!

How do people know when they were having sex, were they there

Yes thats manipulative.

And you'd be supportive of your son being pursued by the media in the manner PS has been through, maybe pushing him to suicide as it did with Caroline Flack? You'd be OK with that?

It started in his dressing room?! And he regretted it sooo much but it happened another 4/5 times 😳

PS was until recently an Ambassador for the Princes trust "The charity, which helps young people aged 11 to 30 get into jobs".

Just fancy that

Has the other party accused him of this, made any allegations or is it trial by media and public opinion? It was wrong yes but saying someone deserves to die. Caroline Flack - have we not learned anything from this?

He's 27.

We know.

He doesn't work in entertainment anymore.

Irrelevant. If you're in the middle of a media storm, and distressed, it is best to have media savvy advice.

If he's still in thrall, that's up to him.

Not if he's been groomed.

You really do have much more sympathy for the predator than you do for MM, don't you @Haywirecity ? Hmm.