It’s a Schofield question - don’t click if you’re fed up with it!

[Schofe99]

I know there are lots of other threads. I haven’t found anyone asking/thinking what I am.

I watched the interview. The way he softened when mentioning the young man and emphasised several times that he’s the one he’s most concerned about.

Was it just me thinking WHAT ABOUT YOUR WIFE??? When Amol asked why it was wrong/what he regretted, I assumed he’d say “well, mainly I was unfaithful to my wife. That was wrong. Im so sorry about that.”

And when he was asked about other gay experiences/relationships he shut that down. Which left me thinking, again, WHAT ABOUT BEING UNFAITHFUL TO YOUR WIFE!!!

He’s talked about “us four” before and mentioned it again in the interview. But it’s not ok for him to have all the cosiness and support of a family unit when he’s being unfaithful, surely?

So my AIBU is am I the only one who is seeing this mainly through the eyes of his wife who is watching her husbands infidelity playing out in public? Maybe they’re not sexually intimate and haven’t been for years. But they’re clearly emotionally intimate, spend a lot of time together etc. How UTTERLY GRIM if she didn’t know that her husband was shagging young men. (I really don’t think she did know - I believe him when he says he lied to her).

'I've lost everything'

'Everything' to him clearly means his telly gigs and the power he held as a star presenter.

What would you rather he said?

“Well my kids have stuck by me, I have millions in the bank, homes abroad and friends who are sticking by me, so I really just don’t give a shit.”

I think there's alot of truth in this.
He's trying to portray 'a broken man'.
He claims he is feeling suicidal and having to be watched by his daughters... he's turning the attention around to himself 'poor me, me me me me me me'.
TWAT 😡
I am a victim of child sex abuse and your life is never the same after.

Well, he wasn't going to agree to an interview with Eammon! Amol is a soft touch.

@Zarataralara agree. Whole thing very staged and managed. But surely the PR pepole know by now that this sort of interview is a disaster as people can easily see when someone is bending a narrative to suit themselves. And it was clumsy - all the me me me.

I mean, its horrible for anyone to be in the media glare, but he more than most must have known this was possible/probable if his actions concerning the young man (from 'mentoring' onwards) came out? I can't feel a huge amount of sympathy.

He was ‘encouraged’ by people at ITV to do the interview. They wanted people talking about PS over the weekend instead of their mistakes. ITV are in a position where they can’t get rid of Holly so they don’t want the focus to be on her and whether she should return.

He says she didn't know he was shagging the runner and he had to tell her - she is angry

https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2023/06/01/phillip-schofield-details-moment-he-told-wife-stephanie-lowe-of-affair-18884233/amp/

I think there's a lot of "oh the wife knows, marriage of convenience" shtick when men are caught in affairs but the reality is a lot of people are very good liars and their partners don't know (or have been gaslit)

I wonder if PS was telling everyone in 2020 that the runner was "obsessed" and blackmailing/trying to destroy him. Sounds like the sort of victim blaming shit powerful men come out with. Also would explain why HW and his wife rallied round him.

The Caroline flack thing I think has been brought out to potentially stop other stories running. The whole thing is very fishy and I think its not going away because PS is lying through his teeth and the media know it.

I'm not convinced. The girl was murdered by her violent boyfriend who appears to have been trying to use her "infidelity" with Freeman as mitigation. Doesn't appear to be any other evidence and he is not really a credible witness

I’m off to Google Morgan Freeman

I didn't say he was. HTH.

I remember reading an article about him being gay at least 20 years ago, it was in a Saturday colour supplement (The Mail)
It didn’t really surprise me, that he was gay, I’d suspected as much but the article contained allegations which caused raised eyebrows. I won’t repeat them here as they could slanderous, (or libellous, not sure which). Then he surfaced on This Morning. No one was more surprised than me when I learned he was married with children.
I think his wife maybe didn’t know at first or she found out later but they put up a front for the sake of the children and his career.
Shes maintained a dignified silence so far.

What was the point of saying ‘if the runner was a female child’ then?

I thought exactly the same OP.

I remember thinking, when he said, "the person I am most sorry for in this is .." I just assumed he'd say his wife!! But no!!! It was MM!!!!!

It really got me thinking that I think he genuinely loves MM.

I feel so so sorry for PS's wife. SHE is the person PS should be feeling the sorriest for. Absolutely.

Completely agree and was exactly what I thought when I watched!! Was a bit shocked to be honest!

The point was simply to explain who I was comparing to. I could equally have used his name, or just 'PS' lover', or any denominator.

This is a discussion board, not an English PHD dissertation.

Or maybe she is gaslighted to believe that he is the one happy to split but she is the one who really wants to stay married to him and he is 'doing her a favour by staying'.

This is my first comment on any of these threads. Whatever PS has done - when does the public shaming and hounding in the press and on social media stop? What do people think will be the result of their actions? Do they want him broken and ruined for the rest of his life? Do they want him dead?

Sent the post too soon - The circumstances surrounding the suicide of Caroline Flack were obviously different, but the reactions, including on here, were extremely similar. Is it OK to destroy someone from the safety of our keyboards? Judge and jury and (hopefully not!) executioners?

Bloody hell, that’s a look of a thousand meanings isn’t it!

I love how the camera man /production team chose that moment to focus on her face as well.... Almost as if they'd heard the rumours...

The guy knew his brother was abusing a child and just told him not to do it again and didn't report it. That shows you where his moral compass is and I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.

And, of course, that's undoubtedly the sanitised version of the story

Yep agree with alllll of this. What a shitty parent.

I don't think anyone's intention here is to destroy him. He's a flawed human being with a dodgy moral sat nav.

However, I think if someone chooses to put themselves in the public eye, then they have to expect some scrutiny and discussion. I agree it can get down to mud slinging - I expect the newspapers have been having a field day.

From what I have seen on here, it is just a discussion about his judgement, his actions over the years and about whether an older powerful man should have had the involvement he did with the boy who then grew up to become someone with whom he had sex.

It is controversial and quite rightly so. It's part of a wider cultural scrutiny about sex and power/influence, at work and beyond. And about how he has handled the fall out.

No-one here is ill-wishing him or baying for blood. This conversation is just a consequence of his bad judgement. I hope he is OK, but yes he does need to have a good look in the mirror and maybe sit quietly and contemplate the damage he has done to others.

Should/could Holly have said anything before now? It seems to push the boundaries of credibility that she did not know?

No-one would be hounding him if he hadn't done what he'd done.

Same goes for CF.

Soon after he came out, he announced that he was moving out of the family home and into his own apartment. I immediately thought that was so he could explore his gay side away from his family. I can't believe for one second his wife did not think that too, or a at least crossed her mind.