To think the media need to be careful...

[apairofjeanstharfitjustright]

Whatever Philip Schofield has done, I think the media need to be careful, look what happened to Caroline Flack. Completely vilified in the press and the same is happening to Philip.

Regardless of what I think of him, I think the media need to back off and tread lightly here.

AIBU or do you think he deserves all of this?

I’m not apologising. Im just asking for the quote. Please feel free to share it.

@Alwaysworryingoversomething child grooming

He should have thought about his wife and daughters.

As if he’s released this statement for no reason. His management have cut all ties; there’s clearly more to come

If a 45 year old man met my son at 11 followed him online at 15 helped him get a job at 18 and was already in a sexual relationship with him despite being 34 years his senior I'd be screaming. Even taking away his celebrity this sickening. Do people honestly believe he had no attraction to this boy until he turned 18?

If you meet someone as a child & later have a relationship with them (both adults) then you must have groomed them?

I'd like to know how many groomers are regular MN posters then.

Same. If the young man had been a girl I suspect the reactions would be different 🙄

Is the current story that this has now been confirmed? Because it’s not ‘new’ news is it - there were rumours before?

I actually think using the situation with Caroline flack as an excuse to shut down discussion of an adult man grooming children and then having sexual relationships with at least one of them (even if schofield waited til he was 18), and for there to potentially have been institutional efforts to turn up blind eye, is not OK.

I suspect that if the saville stuff were coming out now, people would be using Caroline Flack as an excuse to limit what people can talk about.

I also wonder if the ‘remember Caroline flack’ stuff was intentionally planted by schofield's comms team in the hope people would pick it up.

Using the spectre of suicide to control people’s behaviour is deeply problematic.

YANBU. The British media and the public are a bunch of vultures. They love giving people a kicking. Somehow it makes them feel better about themselves to obsessively hate someone and foam at the mouth.

I feel the same as you op
he’s lost his job and his friends and everyone is talking about him .
now it’s time to leave him alone .

Why single out "British"? Foreign papparazzi is worse. Europe and US are every bit as bad as the UK. Most of the "bad" stuff, i.e. naked pictures, details of sleeze etc is reported foreign media as it often gets banned in the UK by our tighter laws!

Any relationship described as "unwise but not illegal" needs looking into closely in my opinion.

^^This

As to his his wife and daughters but I doubt it’s news to them. I mean, I’ve known about this relationship of his for a couple of years at least so I am pretty sure they were aware too.

Jingsmahbucjet, well I suppose it depends who's getting the kicking, no-one seems to mind if its megan n Harry, who have done much less than the scofe

I don’t understand his statement about lying to his employees and colleagues. Surely they were already aware that this alleged relationship was happening on set? Or is the allegation that he allegedly covered it up?

There have been so many rumours about it that the alleged events can’t have been that clandestine surely?

Why did ITV play along with, and manage, his coming out story so publically if everyone allegedly knew about the allegations? It makes you speculate about what alleged hold PS has on other members of management doesn’t it?

Well quite and possibly what else there is to know.

They need to be careful yes.
Glas he’s gone and glad he’s owning up to stuff (finally), but this could easily turn nasty.

Sick of the “Be Kind” bullshit … tens to be used to stifle legitimate comment and criticism.

Domestic Abusers and liars can’t be criticised now, as it might hurt their feelings ?

Oh come off it. He has at best had an inappropriate relationship with (probably groomed) an underage boy, lied to his wife for decades, lied to his employer and lied to the media in a calculated way. He was paid a huge amount of money for decades and ITV is a publicly traded company with public service obligations.

I’m no fan of the tabloid press but this is a massive, legitimate story.

And I am tired of people invoking Caroline Flack to close it down.

Not a shred of sympathy here. This is a massive story, with massive implications and I strongly suspect there is more to come out.

It's the man who was a boy when they met that I feel sorry for.

Swayingpalm, it's equally odious if it was an 11 year old girl

The media won’t back down until it’s all out in the open. There’s clearly more to come, most celebs don’t publicly apologise to the DM unless they’re desperately trying to contain something.

His 20 year friendship with Simon Schofield is interesting. That means they became besties when Simon was 16 and Phil was in his 30s. He’s had a thing for striking up “friendships” with male teenagers for quite a long time.

There is more to come, I’d bet my house on it.

Oh, I totally agree. But I'm just a bit baffled by some of the apologists here is all. I wonder how they'd feel if their 18 year old son/daughter was being sexually chased by their 50 year old boss (after following them as a 15 year old) and then got them fired when they wanted to talk about it is all. Did noone learn anything from operation yew tree? Or, should we have "been kind" to those people too so as not to hurt their feelings?