Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Sorry, another Philip Schofield one...

999 replies

UnaCorda · 08/02/2020 20:20

I really couldn't care less about Philip Schofield's sexuality (or anyone else's) and good for him for finally being true to himself. But what makes me quite cross is all this talk of honesty and bravery, and the self-indulgent, tortured confessional in front of the nation when really it's of no importance to anyone who doesn't know him personally.

In the clip of his chat with Holly he asks repeatedly, "When is the right time?" In my opinion, the right time is before you get married to someone who believes you are straight. It's not brave, or honest, to make someone unwittingly provide you with the benefits of a heterosexual relationship, including children, so you can be viewed by the public as a "respectable family man". It's actually rather selfish.

I had a brief relationship with someone who I later discovered was gay. He didn't even have the balls to tell me directly, and it seriously screwed me up for a long time. I can't imagine what it must be like to find out your husband of 27 years is homosexual.

I'm not gay, so perhaps I am being unreasonable as I don't know what it is like to come out to friends and family (although I imagine it is easier now than it was thirty years ago) and I don't know whether PS really believed that he was in love with his wife when they got married. But I do think that leaving a duplicitous life which affects other people is not a kind or honourable thing to do and I feel very sorry for his wife and daughters who I think really have been brave.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Dowser · 09/02/2020 22:27

What?
Whatever you’re on ..can I have some of it.
Bizarre

HatRack · 09/02/2020 22:28

Lots of virtue signaling when he first came out. Rainbows, pride, brave.

Well now the virtue signalling folk look like sheep devoid of critical thinking.

smashstore · 09/02/2020 22:36

dowser

What?
Whatever you’re on ..can I have some of it.
Bizarre

I haven't said anything bizarre. You are the one who suggested instead of coming out he should enjoy his nice house Hmm you display a staggering lack of understanding and rather than explain what you mean you have been rude to me

SummersMahoosiveClipOnFringe · 09/02/2020 22:40

Daily Mail are sailing close to the wind.....

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7982795/The-frenzied-24-hours-planning-ITV-Phillip-Schofield-came-gay-live-TV.html

Dowser · 09/02/2020 22:45

I never said anything like you insinuated at all.

smashstore · 09/02/2020 22:48

I never said anything like you insinuated at all.

It's exactly what you said. Look again...

just don’t know what possesses some people to do this.

He’s got a beautiful home..something most of us could never afford..why feel the need to shout it from the rooftops.

smashstore · 09/02/2020 22:49

You then went on to say he should 'enjoy it' (his home)

Not to mention the link to pictures of his house that accompanied the first comment Confused

smashstore · 09/02/2020 22:50

Maybe you should explain what you did mean, because I'm struggling to see anything t other than what you wrote

ABlackRussian · 09/02/2020 22:51

I understand putting out a public statement..assuming that we gave a shit in the first place?

But the public pantomime, that followed, was something elseHmm

RapidRainbow · 09/02/2020 22:54

Late article from The Sun is Steph supporting PS.

She said: “I will still be there, holding his hand. Everyone should be proud to live their own truth.”

www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/10928260/phillip-schofield-wife-steph-support-coming-out/

I don't doubt this is difficult for her but I really get the impression she dealt with this a long time ago or things progressed at a slow rate that perhaps she knew before him. Her support does suggest a lack of sordid affairs, or at the very least, she has been aware and given permission.

TheGreatWave · 09/02/2020 23:02

The trouble with not being totally truthful is that one has to remember what is the actual truth and what isn't, what they have said and what they haven't.

I think this 'damage limitation' is going to actually do more harm than good (unless super injunctions happen), a much simpler announcement would not have left the glaringly unanswered questions that this has done.

Only time will tell I guess.

nauticant · 09/02/2020 23:04

I'd interpret it as Stephanie Lowe thinking "let's try and calm things down while I decide what I want, and what's open for me, to do".

GrimDamnFanjo · 10/02/2020 01:18

The thing is that I really don't believe he was faithful to his wife.
I met someone in 1991 who alleged he had slept with him (male). This would have been when he and Steph were in a relationship.

If he were still a bbc star then I reckon he'd be toast.
ITV have sewn up the Sun. a threat to cut off a newspapers supply to itv may be enough to silence the rest. Or a superinjunction.

KatyCarrCan · 10/02/2020 01:57

I'd assume PS' team offered the Sun his exclusive coming out story to get them to drop the other story.

If PS hadn't cheated, he'd be saying so eg 'I never cheated on my wife and only after we divorce will I think about dating.' Instead he's keeping that 'private' because he doesn't want to get caught in a blatant lie. It will be interesting to see if it affects their viewing figures.

Dennisreynoldsduster · 10/02/2020 02:11

I think the timing is very suspect - off the back of a load of bad press about him which has now been conveniently forgotten.
I’m not disputing that he has made a big step, that he’s had struggles etc but as someone who has worked in the media I know that nothing is done randomly and there is always an agenda.

Fair play to him for going public, but the whole
Thing feels very calculated and contrived to me. Especially the bit with Eamon and Ruth joining them on the sofa.

knowmenclature · 10/02/2020 02:23

I am guilty of saying noones interested in others sex lives and so no, over dramatising to make a big announcement and open his family to that public debacle.

However, I do hear that this is not always easy to do for many still (I don't think this is something that PS is suffering under at all though).

For many it does still seem to be a very big deal and I get how it then matters. I hooe it helps any that feel this way to accept that for many like me, we couldn't care less which sex you sleep with.

Thats important isn't it?

Maybe you only understand if you've been through it, but from the outside I really don't need to hear what sex of person someone prefers to sleep with.

Its no biggey.

I won't be swelling any viewing figures, can't stand him. I think he's taking the piss out of many, including his family, and possibly his copresenter too.

When one of the contestants of dancing on ice burst into tears, he was completely unmoved, whereas those on the panel got up and went over to hug her, once they'd all done that he finally made a move, but it looked like a dumb one.

What I can't get my head around is that he has broken vows of marriage, yet, is still married and plans to remain that way Confused wtf Hmm.

He clearly does not have the hetero marriage he made vows to. Unless he's bi and they still have an active sex life, but he hasn't said that, but that he's gay.

I wonder if she is preparing to be a transwidow perhaps, and I hope the stories circulating about inappropriate relationships with underage boys are false, as he'll need to get off telly, quick, thats fucking grim, if its true.

daisychain01 · 10/02/2020 06:50

I'd love to know the difference between a "sordid affair" and (presumably) a non-sordid affair! If it's about giving consent rather that doing it secretively behind someone's back, the likelihood of his wife giving her approval is zero, more like she's had to turn a blind eye and/ or put up with it.

The whole thing is a car crash. Who'd want to have the whole country discussing and speculating about the intimate details of one's marriage.

daisychain01 · 10/02/2020 06:56

Fair play to him for going public

No! Why fair play? He's thrown his wife and family under the proverbial bus, and for what? Because he's a media figure on a fat salary and they've all had to be sacrificed at the altar of PSs public image. A high price to pay.

CherryPavlova · 10/02/2020 08:21

Fair play to him for going public

Why should he be celebrated for such a betrayal. He entered a marriage on false premise making the 27 years a lie. He’s assumedly robbed his wife of a physical relationship and destroyed any trust.
He cheated on her and has placed her at risk of STDs.

He’s lived a lie and been entirely disloyal and unfaithful. Just because he’s rich and able to support his family financially doesn’t make it less of a betrayal.
It’s not about him being gay. It’s about him being a dishonourable cheat.

emilybrontescorsett · 10/02/2020 08:26

I have zero sympathy for him.
He has committed adultery ( at best) .
At worst, well time will tell and if the rumours are true I hope he never works again.
I don't watch TM.
I can't abide the dim witted HW and after I heard how they spoke to Jeremy Cornyn yet gushed over Borris Johnson , it confirmed to m e that PS is a vile twat too.
I dislike EH, his interview over the whole trans debate was totally biased and uneducated.
The only one I don't mind is Ruth. The one who fell out with PS.
I'm sick of seeing the entire same sycophantic faces A & D included.
And no I don't watch anything with them in.

Lordfrontpaw · 10/02/2020 08:30

It’s being stage managed - and who can blame him I suppose - but why play the public for fools? What is the goal here - damage limitation or an eye on a new career path?

Evilmorty · 10/02/2020 08:40

I really like Ruth and I have heard from people who work with her that she is a really lovely person. I can see why, if this is a case of PS befriending a 15 year old with a view to making a move when he becomes 18, that she would wish to dissociate herself from that and a formal complaint would be the way to do it.

Holly has completely gone down in my estimation. Potentially she’s enabled him cheating on his wife. And attempted to validate it when he said “I feel guilty” she replied “you can’t change who you are though”. Well no but you can stop yourself lying to and potentially cheating on a woman who loves you for 27 years.

SpanishFly · 10/02/2020 08:56

Why are none of the papers running the real story here??

BeyondReasonablyDoubtsLots · 10/02/2020 09:00

I'm guessing that there is already a super injunction in place, and it has been at least since the runner moved programmes

nauticant · 10/02/2020 09:04

If the runner denies that anything improper happened, which would help preserve his career, and those in the ITV camp keep their united front, which they're motivated to do otherwise they'll look very dodgy indeed, then a newspaper going with this story could see a very nasty libel claim, not just in terms of money but also in terms of appearing to have acted out of "homophobia". It's too risky unless they can get a solid first hand account.