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.

There was little prejudice against gay men in society when PS rose to fame

Nonsense! There is still so much homophobia around. Just look at the pearl clutching that goes on here when a brand puts a rainbow on Twitter. I know gay people who feel more vulnerable today than they did 10 years ago.

and even less in the media industry where there has always been more acceptance of homosexuality.

This simply isn’t true. The media is still filled with many high profile gay people who are still in the closet. I don’t know any other industry that has so many closeted people.

And people would be equally condemnatory had he seduced a young girl, and he knows it.

I can’t remember any man or woman who has done similar or worse getting the same press. Do you?

And yes it's happened in the past. But the world is constantly changing and striving to be better, and this reaction is good.. hopefully it'll put off some of the old sleazy men in power from going down that road.

I think you are very mistaken if you think this is glee. What you are seeing here is the reaction of a group of parents, a number of whom have DC the same age that the lad PS was involved with was when he met him. It is deep disgust not glee. And additionally disgust at the blatant attempt at manipulation that we are witnessing.

Ridiculous to expect any other reaction on a parenting site in my opinion and the more these equally blatant attempts to try and “control the narrative” continue, the angrier people will become.

It's chilling the way his talking.

He wouldn't commit suicide, he's too much of a narcissist, empty threats to make people feel sorry for him.

I am not gleeful.

Honestly the fact that he dragged Caroline Flack into this saying this is how she felt when he's got no fucking idea how she felt and it was a totally different situation, and the fact that he's thrown out the lazy "homophobic" insult to try to silence people speaks volumes to me. It's manipulative and narcissistic and shows what sort of character he is.

Sigh. Carry on doing your work, believing you are supporting the victim by tearing down others. You are obviously fully briefed about all the circumstances, so able to comment. I am not, so I must stop seeing all sides to this.

But do continue to hide behind the #bekind #metoo movement if it helps you to justify these ugly threads.

"Do you want me to die, because that's where I am?" said in response to the media attention that's been going on day after day after day.

It's been a couple of weeks? I mean we'd be happy for it to stop too, there are a few wars going on in the world.

I agree re the runner that he shouldn't feature at all (entire body blurred out, not just face), no interviews with "friends" etc. But Schofield has spent his entire career in the media. He KNOWS what it's like. He wasn't exactly kind and forgiving when "interviewing" Kerry Katona or Kim (I don't know her name, but she had been on big brother and she called Schofield out on the sofa for his manner of interviewing her). I'm sure there were others. Point is not that anybody deserves to be pummelled by the media, but it's a bit rich to claim it's driving him to suicidality right now, when he seriously impacted others' mental health when he was part of it!

And I am sure he feels utterly rotten. The carefully constructed lie he'd built up and been master of for years has been ripped from around him, leaving him feeling exposed. And he's attacked for it all. He's subject to scrutiny. Of course he feels bad. He feels bad about being exposed for what he's done. Not what people think he's done, but what he's actually now admitted to. He's not suicidal because he lied to his wife about his sexuality and lied to her about the affair. He's not suicidal because he lied to his lawyer or colleagues or anybody else. He's feeling bad because he's been found out: everybody knows.

And while I'm not going to diminish the fact he may very well feel suicidal and that's an awful place to be (been there multiple times myself due to abuse) we also can't ignore that as part of the media machine, he knows exactly what and who he's invoking when he gives the accusation that the media appears to want him to die. And that is quite honestly a disgusting move. If he was truly sorry he'd go nowhere near Flack, because he'd not want to appear like he was using her to manipulate coverage of him for what he's done.

He is far more aware of his words and appearance on camera than any of us, those things have been the basis of his career. He didn't say anything on there by mistake. He didn't choose his outfit or posture by mistake. He knew full well what he was doing and full well what he was saying.

Well said.

I can’t remember any man or woman who has done similar or worse getting the same press. Do you?

The public perception of relationships like these has clearly changed in recent years, and it's mad that PS hasn't recognised this considering his job.

Elvis and Priscilla nowadays would play out completely differently. I disagree that it's homophobia.

Plus, the lie about The Thing always makes The Thing itself much much worse when it comes out.

We’ve never heard Jimmy Savile’s side of his story either, so should we hush that up too?

And no, my abuser will never go to court and pay for what he did, because like most people who were abused as a child, I have no proof. How do you think that feels for victims? Do you stop and think about that, or only ever about the abuser?

Picking up on a comment from the first page - saying he’s faking because “he made a tiny mistake and now he’s suicidal” - that’s got bugger all to do with it. He’s lost everything, his jobs, his fame, his friends and supporters and fans. His entire life has changed very drastically and that’s after the stress of his brothers trial. I’m not a fan at all but I think when someone tells you they’re life has changed so much that they feel there is no way to fix it and no way out then you bloody well listen. You bloody well stop the hate. His life has been destroyed, that should be enough. It shouldn’t have to end with his suicide but the vultures here don’t give me much hope. This isn’t ok.

Why are some people being deliberately thick?

Why on earth would he - who must get hundreds of DMs from people every day - start chatting to an unknown kid on Twitter and then get him a job, put him on a pedestal etc? Its a head scratcher for sure.

Its textbook grooming 🙄

The twitter following still seems off

PS says he was asked to follow the kid on there, because kid had an interest in telly

Surely a lot of other kids from the stage school would also have that interest. If so, was he not asked to follow them too... which would have been a reasonable explanation to have now- e.g. I followed a group of them.

He mentions a couple of times he follows 11k people, which I assume he means oh I follow loads of people, he was just one of them. Nothing more than that.

But if you follow 11k people and a lot of them follow you too, you would imagine a lot of tweeting back and forth just isn't realistic/sustainable. You'd be at it all day

He says the kid then expressed an interest in being involved in TV, directly to PS, who said let me know if I can help, which apparently he has often said to others too. Where are those people? Surely his crisis team would be pulling out any example they could find.

It just doesn't make sense to me. Surely PS would have heaps of people asking him for help and favours and to promote xyz. How did he spot and respond to this kid among all that?

He has made a career out of being a vulture himself, 'circling prey' for example presenting a PM with a list of alleged paedophiles live on air without any evidence whatsoever. He didn't seem so bothered about homophobia then.

Also not so bothered about the damage online rumours/gossip can do.

He played that young man. Offered him his dream career. When all the time he had other designs on him. That's grooming.
His wife thought her husband wasn't sexually attracted to men. So she saw PS's attention and affection towards the lad as innocent.
Has mentoring with the Prince's Trust.
If it had been a young woman that PS had taken on, his wife quite likely would have thought 'ay ay what's all this then, he's obsessed with her'.

i really don’t like this witch hunt now.
every paper and channel reporting it as headline news. It feels very wrong now.

We need to leave him alone now.

It does highlight how hard it is to define grooming legally though. Both sides of the explanation are plausible and it’s impossible to know intentions behind actions.

Something he has done….

This is the crux. He needs to take responsibility for his actions and face up to the consequences. Threatening suicide so everyone goes ‘oh there there, it wasn’t so bad after all’ is not the answer.

We don't have the full story so people will judge and jump to conclusions. Philip can either hold his head up high with confidence his moral integrity was not breached (not sure anyone agrees with this) or accept there was an issue, apologise and move on. Unlikely there will be any prosecution without evidence of underage activity and Philip has made enough money to have a very comfortable retirement somewere out of the public eye. I can’t see how he can ‘clear his name’ based on what we are already told. Suicide won’t do that either, or make anyone feel bad about thinking he was at best a man with low morals and at worse a groomer and potentially a paedophile. It’s on him.

I agree.
I feel so sorry too for his wife, his daughters and his mother.
They too are vulnerable.
The media is relentless.
We, the public get it.
What went on.
We really do.
We don't need any more information. Any more column inches.
Any more interviews.
Yes the information had to come out but enough now.

Certainly wouldn't have been.

I had a conversation yesterday with a director of amateur musicals. He just finished a run of shows and one of the actors came up to him and thanked him for "not being creepy". Director friend is gay. Actor detailed other directors who'd "mistakenly" walked into his changing room while he was alone getting changed, amongst other "innocent" things. One of the worst offenders is seen as a brilliant director and great at getting funding, so generally seen as a good person to work with.

If these directors were doing it to women, they've have been called out years ago. Nobody feels able to call them out though because they're worried about being called homophobic.

They live abroad, but in a Western European country where there's no problem with being gay.

Explain the difference?

A few differences between Cheryl and Liam.

Only a 10 year age gap, not 35 ish years.
She met him at 14 but there has never been any hint that she kept in touch with him in his childhood.
She then met him again as an adults at 22 and 32.
By that time, he had an extremely successful career and was very rich, just like her. She couldn’t further his career. He had done what she had in terms of career, money making and travelling and being in the public eye. No imbalance of power.
They were officially a couple, appeared together as a couple. Their friends and family all met and built relationships with each other.
They co parent their child.

I don’t particularly like age gap relationships especially when one is late teens/early 20s but the Liam/Cheryl thing is just not comparable.

Clearly I've been through years of that kind of manipulation by my abuser. Anyone with half a grasp on English would be able to tell that. You might want to think on who is disgusting because that's how you are talking to someone who has been through the absolute torture of it, while also enabling more abusers to keep on manipulating and hurting people.

On the first part there I agree, however, as someone who worked in the media, with links to Daily Mail journos, I'm sure he was very aware that by giving an interview to the BBC there'd be lots more coverage. If he wants it to stop, truly does, he would have been better off fading away and giving them nothing to talk about. Issue a statement to say he has nothing more to say on the issue. But he's not done that. There are headlines that he's upset Holly hasn't messaged him back etc.

He needs to lie low if he wants them to give up.

I’m not trying to provoke I’m genuinely curious why Cheryl Cole didn’t get this level of attention when she got with Liam Payne? He was only 14 when they met and she was in a position of power and influence over him.

It's the classic tactic used by abusers and narcs - DARVO. Stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & offender. In this interview, HE becomes the victim. He thinks we're all going to think 'Poor Pip, such a nice man who's been given a hard time unnecessarily' when the truth is so much more sordid and manipulative. He's the classic dangerous narc disguised as a 'nice man'.