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AIBU?

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Original poster

Holly willoboughly

828 replies

midnightblue12 · 27/05/2023 21:03

Ok I know I've spelt her surname wrong... but here we are. We all know who I'm talking about!

I just don't understand why social media has turned on her, almost blaiming her for allowing Phillip S antics to go on?

Why is she responsible for his actions????

And for those saying "she must've known"... maybe she didn't! Maybe she kept out of it or maybe she didn't know the full one and puts.
Why so she being Blaine's. Am I missing something??!

OP posts:
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20
CallieQ · 28/05/2023 00:57

RudsyFarmer · 27/05/2023 21:13

I still do t really understand why we’re all hating him. Is it because he had an affair? Because he’s gay? Because the person he had the affair with was young and the rumour is he manipulated the person into a sexual relationship?

I can’t work it out. I don’t like him because he’s everywhere and seems a sanctimonious prick but I can’t work out why this is constant front page news. People have affairs all the time and keep their jobs. The whole of parliament lie all the time and keep their jobs. What am I missing?

Because the affair partner was underage! People are saying he's peadophile

porridgeisbae · 28/05/2023 01:04

@CallieQ He wasn't underage when they actually did anything, as far as we know.

But the whole thing is still kind of grim.

Porridgealert · 28/05/2023 01:06

CallieQ · 28/05/2023 00:57

Because the affair partner was underage! People are saying he's peadophile

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He was 18 when the actual affair started. Unless you have evidence to the contrary...

LaffTaff · 28/05/2023 01:06

CantFindTheBeat · 28/05/2023 00:14

@LaffTaff - I think you've nailed it.

Being PS's female alter-ego has pretty much been the USP that HW was perpetuated.

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The 'coming out' show was incredibly dubious in it's sincerity, and I think that show is where the rot started to set in for both HW and PS...
Scofield's wife was spoken about by both of them (none of her own words were read) as a mere bit part in HIS story. She was portrayed as all understanding and personally unaffected - and that just can't have been true! There was a strong sense that HW's altruistic approach to Schofield on that show was pure self preservation, because honestly how many of us (as women) would display that sort of simpering sympathy towards a man admitting he'd subjected his wife to a 27 year sham marriage.

BonnieBobbin · 28/05/2023 01:17

A TV station having a culture of complicity and cover-up is news. Presenters have said they complained and management ignored them then moved them on. Other presenters and guests spoke publicly about questioning ITV's decisions and values concerning this.
Being on TV provides access and confers respectability. The backlash against Saville and how TV enabled him wasn't consigned to only abusers of the magnitude and depravity of Saville. It was, alongside Me Too, supposed to create a culture where any abuses of power were addressed. All safeguarding was supposed to be more robust afterwards.

SquaresandStarlings · 28/05/2023 01:19

I'd always thought HW was amazing until last year on Mumsnet when someone who nannied for a friend of her's, and who saw her regularly, said she wasn't very nice at all.

Plus her recent 'memoir' was basically a giant advert for her new wellness brand...

CallieQ · 28/05/2023 01:21

@Porridgealert

He was 18 when the actual affair started. Unless you have evidence to the contrary...

I have heard he was younger than that.....

Languagofdelight · 28/05/2023 02:13

The 'coming out' show was incredibly dubious in it's sincerity, and I think that show is where the rot started to set in for both HW and PS...
Scofield's wife was spoken about by both of them (none of her own words were read) as a mere bit part in HIS story. She was portrayed as all understanding and personally unaffected - and that just can't have been true! There was a strong sense that HW's altruistic approach to Schofield on that show was pure self preservation, because honestly how many of us (as women) would display that sort of simpering sympathy towards a man admitting he'd subjected his wife to a 27 year sham marriage.

Yes I think this analysis is quite perceptive. Very little of that performance sat well with people. Has his wife ever come out and said anything that would indicate she was 'understanding'? Groomers groom. Maybe his wife, and even Holly were victims too?

Porridgealert · 28/05/2023 02:21

@CallieQ

This what the Daily Mail is reporting.

At the time, the schoolboy asked him for a job, and Schofield later arranged an interview for him. It led to a position as an ITV production assistant when he turned 18. Some time afterwards, their affair began.

We do know for a fact that Schofield started following him when he was 15 but never actually wrote anything until he was 18. So that might tie in a bit. But as I say, you might know differently?

T1Dmama · 28/05/2023 02:43

Mrsjayy · 27/05/2023 21:18

Sorry I meant to quote @RudsyFarmer .

I wonder what Philip schofield would say if a creepy 50 odd year old man was having sex with his 18 year old daughter.

That he’d known from the age of 9

AnyaMarx · 28/05/2023 02:48

I think when it benefited her image he was the best mate . The cool kid with the gay friend .

Then as soon as it didn't benefit her she ran a country mile to distance herself.

OctoberLeaves · 28/05/2023 04:16

I have never watched This Morning in my life, yet I knew.

It’s really inconceivable that she didn’t!

curtainsfringe · 28/05/2023 05:16

I don't know why this is being reported on as if it's proper news. Particularly it on the BBC website as a "breaking news" update. It's celebrity gossip.

It's about the culture of coverup; that's the story. The Tiger Woods sex scandal was big news & again the media knew for years but sat on it v

curtainsfringe · 28/05/2023 05:22

Also in trying to keep the story quiet Philip went "against" the press. They hate that!

ProfessorXtra · 28/05/2023 05:36

I am shocked she believed him. But I think she might have always been a bit in awe of him. I am 41 and he was on TV when I was a child. Her career really took off when she worked with him. It may have been a case of she thought the sun shined out of his arse she believed everything he said. But given she will have actually observed PS with him, I am shocked she genuinely believed him.

The whole situation is fucked up. I wouldn’t be surprised if TM goes. It’s not that He had an affair.

He met him as a child, did him favours, maintain close contact, got him a job and waited until he was 18 to shag him. It’s essentially grooming.

The revelation that his response to his brother admitting child abuse was to tell him not to do it again. I mean Wtf?

The fact that when the story was going to come out in TM helped him spin it into his coming out story with a theme of ‘oh you are so beautiful and brave’. I don’t believe everyone at this morning believed PS denial.

Then he has lied to his agent and lawyer. He hasn’t ever admitted it to his lawyer, when it’s been threatened to be exposed. Or his agent? He came up with the ‘I will change the narrative by coming out’ on its own.

If HW really did believe him she must be mortified

IAmTheWalrus85 · 28/05/2023 05:51

TeaKitten · 27/05/2023 21:19

Even if she did no that he’s a creep, it was common knowledge and ITV wouldn’t act on it, so what was she suppose to do? Throw away her career and ability to feed her kids? And what would that have achieved? What exactly was her crime? If everyone at itv new why not shut down the channel rather than blaming one woman?

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But they’ve now fallen out and if reports are to be believed she was the one who got him ousted from the show by refusing to work with him. And it seems clear their falling-out is absolutely nothing to do with the inappropriate relationship - it seems to have been about him taking annual leave to attend his brother’s trial.

So she’s entirely capable of taking a stand over something that’s annoyed her/threatened to damage her career - but she wasn’t prepared to take it over this (if she knew). And let’s not pretend her ability to feed her kids would have been jeopardised by taking a stand 😂

I’m not saying she’s culpable but if she knew about it and did nothing then I think she’s unprincipled.

IAmTheWalrus85 · 28/05/2023 05:53

AnyaMarx · 28/05/2023 02:48

I think when it benefited her image he was the best mate . The cool kid with the gay friend .

Then as soon as it didn't benefit her she ran a country mile to distance herself.

Absolutely this.

Treesandsheepeverywhere · 28/05/2023 05:59

Florenz · 27/05/2023 22:13

Because her and Schofield came across as a friendly couple on TV people think they must have been best friends in real life, always spending time with each other, at each others houses etc. When in reality it's a job, they probably turned up to work, spoke briefly to each other before the show started, did their job, and then went home to do their own thing. The same as most TV presenter duos.

It's a fact that they were friends. Basically intertwined with no boundary between work and private life.
When he came out, he bought a house close to Holly and they would cycle together.
They've been on numerous holidays with each other and respective families.
They rubbed their friendship in people's faces as well as the friendship with the top brass.
Hence why they were untouchable.
Phil had carved the top brass friendships and brought Holly in. It gave her been B status and thus turned a blind eye just as the bosses were.
Happy to go along with it when it suited her.

Treesandsheepeverywhere · 28/05/2023 06:10

CantFindTheBeat · 28/05/2023 00:16

@Treesandsheepeverywhere

What did HW do to Fern Cotton and Peter Jones?

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She went into partnership with Peter Jones for her to be the face of a home-ware brand or such.
He got her into the loop, his expertise, contacts etc only for her to jump ship weeks before the launch and start working on her own wellness brand.
They used to be close friends too with each other's families.
Not friends anymore.

With Fern, they'd agreed to leave Celebrity Juice at a specific time, and said they wouldn't be on it without the other.
But when that time came, Fern resigned but Holly changed her mind and stayed on. Friendship wasn't the same after bit didn't stop Holly going on Fern's podcast to promote her wellness brand.

Both cases she had the right to change her mind but shows what a flakey friend she is and how her word means nothing.

That's just the ones that have been reported on, wonder what goes on in her non public friendship groups.

rainydaysandtuesday · 28/05/2023 06:11

She posted on Instagram about Phil and she's saying she feel's hurt that he lied to her

Ivalueloyaltyaboveallelse · 28/05/2023 06:23

The more I read and learn about HW the less I like her. I think she knew as everyone else did ie EH, RL, RC and many more. I can’t believe she didn’t have a clue what was going on when her and PS were so close and treated like the untouchable stars of the show. He groomed a child and she ignored it for suitable hours, fame and money. Her posting about being shocked and betrayal is not helping her case either, especially after reading in daily mail how she herself will betray friends to get what she wants. The Peter Jones and his wife story was terrible. HW is a user and will do anything to boost her career and bank balance.

billysboy · 28/05/2023 06:30

He’s a Nonce and she has helped enable his affair and grooming and the betrayal to his wife
HW only interested in herself

GrinAndVomit · 28/05/2023 06:32

Solonge · 27/05/2023 23:56

Eamonn Holmes decent? Well I guess if you like very right wing presents then maybe.

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This kind of comment makes me despair!
This is where tribal politics gets us,

PS groomed a child by using his power and influence on tv to groom that child, once he was a teen, into having a sexual relationship. EH saw this as abhorrent and spoke out and subsequently found himself dismissed from a very well paid position but stood by his convictions. Yet, EH is the one in the wrong because you assume he votes differently to you.

Viviennemary · 28/05/2023 06:33

NoTouch · 27/05/2023 21:24

No respect for holly, dermot or alison all publically playing tribute to him or thanking him when he has behaved terribly, sacked in disgrace, they would have all known the rumours had been there for years . They would have shown more character saying nothing about him and just getting on with the show.

I can't stand PS. But all this in a world where anything goes is a bit rich. And his colleagues all trying to make themselves look better. Its sickening. I think the whole show should be axed.

GreekGod · 28/05/2023 06:39

Of course she knew as others did. The whole show should be axed - he is disgusting and so is she for knowing but doing nothing about it.