Phillip Schofield has spoken about the impact his recent high profile departure from ITV and This Morning has had, as he said he is now afraid to leave the house.
Following the revelation of his affair with a younger male colleague, the former This Morning presenter, 61, previously said he had “lost everything” after admitting to the affair, and that the fallout had had a “catastrophic effect” on his mind.
In a new interview with The Sun he said he feared being spat on in the street and that he was currently getting by “hour by hour”. He told the paper: “I do not know a time I will be able to walk out of the door.
“I don’t have any spirit. My friends tell me, ‘It will get better’. It won’t. Not now. Not this one.” Schofield said he now fears being “spat on” in the street, adding: “I am getting by hour by hour. I have got my girls and my friends.”
READ MORE: Caroline Flack's mum sends Phillip Schofield message and slams ITV
Schofield has said he “didn’t tell anybody” about his affair with his former This Morning colleague but disagreed with any implication of “grooming” the young man.
Asked by the BBC’s Amol Rajan about who on his team knew about the relationship, the presenter said: “Nobody to my knowledge. I mean somebody has to know something for there to be a rumour later on. I didn’t believe that anybody knew.”
Phillip Schofield has underlined that there was no “sexual forwardness” towards his former lover until he was a colleague at This Morning and aged 20 or 21.
Asked by the BBC’s Amol Rajan how old his former ITV colleague was when they had the affair, Schofield said: “20 or 21.” Schofield confirmed he did help him get a showreel together but said the younger man “was then given a job on his own merits because he was very good”.
Seeking to clarify the nature of their relationship when the former colleague was underage, Rajan said: “Just be really clear, your relationship between when you met him when he was 15 and then when he was 18 was occasional direct messages… no pictures of each other sent to each other?”
Schofield responded by shaking his head.
Asked whether the messages were flirtatious, the former TV presenter said: “Just work-related, just career advice, career help.”
Schofield also agreed there was “no sort of sexual forwardness” at that time by another shake of his head.
Quiz: Which member of the Royal Family are you? Find out here
Rajan said the crux of the issue is whether there was a potential “abuse of power”, adding that it might be perceived as “grooming”.
“The circumstances are as follows: you met someone who was a child, you were in a position of power over them. You use your power eventually to give them something they craved, which was shot at a job in the media. You nurtured a relationship and then that relationship became sexual. And they might ask, what’s the difference between that and grooming?”
Schofield replied: “Well, I would say that the initial list of things was not right anyway.
“Because it was a totally innocent picture, a totally innocent Twitter follow, of which I follow 11,400 people, and then it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job, about careers.
“What’s wrong with talking to someone no matter what age they are? Does that mean that if you are following anyone on Twitter that you absolutely don’t talk to anybody else or you don’t give advice? So I disagree with the summation that you just gave, because that does paint a very grave picture.”
Phillip Schofield has said he first started following his former lover on Twitter when he was aged 15 after he was asked to do so by a friend.
In an interview with Amol Rajan on the BBC, the former This Morning presenter explained he was invited by a friend to go to a school, something he said he has done “thousands of times”.
Schofield claimed he was later asked to follow “a fan” back on Twitter, who was aged 15 at the time – to which the presenter agreed.
“I follow 11,300 people and in all the time that I’ve been on Twitter there has never been any whiff of impropriety”, he added.
Schofield said the last time he interacted with his former lover was a “couple of weeks” ago when he organised a lawyer for him because he needed “independent” support.
Schofield later confirmed he is paying for the man’s legal advice.
Phillip Schofield has denied allegations that his former This Morning colleague was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to keep him silent over their affair and feels the truth is coming out now as “the lie got too big for both of us”.
The BBC’s Amol Rajan asked: “Do you know if he has signed an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement, preventing him from speaking?”
Schofield said: “Did I make him sign an NDA? No, absolutely not.”
He also said there is no injunction or any NDA preventing media coverage of their relationship and that his former lover was not paid off for his silence.
“I mean, what he wants is for all of this to go away. He wants a quiet life,” Schofield added of his former colleague’s stance on the matter.
Asked why he believes the story is coming out now, Schofield said: “The lie got too big for both of us. It just got enormous.
“It was growing and growing and growing. And it crossed over from the from online to mainstream news.”
READ NEXT:
