I’m willing to bet if I watch it I’ll have even less time for him. His actions are those of a sociopath who has spent decades deceiving people and getting off on it, and this is how he attempts expiation. Check out the timeline on the oh so convenient “tattle wiki” [must be from mumsnet] for the full story and then see how you feel. Literally nobody is sticking up for him.
The constant reference to 5 or 6 'romantic encounters' is vom. There is nothing 'romantic' about an old man shagging a youth in your dressing room Phil.
It's not all homophobia either. It's probably part of the story but he thinks he wouldn't be criticised if he was having sex with a 20 year old female runner in his dressing room?
The doublethink is really creepy. He’s obvs mentioned the “occasions” because that’s next to come out ( ho ho ). So much of this is drip drip news management. It’s not big it’s not clever. It’s not homophobia to think a relationship with a massive power imbalance and age gap is ickmax.
It does all sound a bit ick but there is no suggestion of anything criminal that I have seen and he has already resigned/been fired from the relevant job. Not really sure why it is still news to be honest.
It’s all a LOT of pearl clutching for something relatively stupid but not horrendous, really. Wonder why he’s being made the fall guy. I reckon there’s some dodgy AF shit. Popbitch inferred as much and I’m always inclined to believe them over the press.
Ok. But he wasn’t a child. However, there’s obviously an issue here with inter colleague relationships and using a position of power and influence. Perhaps ITV need to put a ban on office relationships in place like the Americans do.
It's news because the Great British public would rather engage in tittle tattle about B-list celebrities than the real world (AI, the climate emergency, Sudan, the Balkans)
It smacks to me of “I got you this job that others would kill for and now you’re going to get on your knees and show me how grateful you are” which is wrong whoever is involved.
I think there is some homophobia, and I do not think a person should lose their job for purely an affair at work.
However, I suspect he is a bit of a nasty bastard and this issue is the only thing that some people can be used to take him down for other things he has done.
The affair started when the person was 20. He joined the show aged 18 and Phil knew him before then. The date they first met is somewhst hazy. Interested to know if the rest is public.
I am in no way condoning the behaviour but there have been long been rumours that he is a twunt to work with. There is a lot coming out which suggests that people have been waiting for a chance to take him down due to his past behaviour and it looks like this was the incident that went too far for some. It looks like a combination of him being d?ck to work with and being caught lying. The 2020 'reveal' has been exposed for the media stunt it was.I suspect he's been on borrowed time since then. Its shouldn't be headline news everywhere.
I haven't watched the interview but think the fall from grace is a big one, especially for someone with such an ego. Given what happenend to CF, I hope he has some support.
There's no way in this day and age I would have any kind of relationship with any much younger colleague so it just shows a certain arrogance that he thought the same rules don't apply to him and then to double down he lied about it.
you can be a creepy f*cker without breaking the law
I have it on good authority that in some Scouts units there are adults who wait until the boys in their units turn 18 then start hitting them up on Grindr which is legal if not morally reprehensible
Matthew McGreevy joined a theatre company aged 10, Schofield was a patron.
He set up his first twitter account the week after his 15th birthday. Schofield followed him (not as a follow back). MMG tweeted a few times to PS, but PS didn't respond.
MMG set up a new twitter account, same.
MMG set up a third account, a week after turning 18. PS followed and chatted with him on twitter. Then offered him a job.
If PS's version of events is true, I feel bad for him. Yes, I get that the age gap is icky but if it was all innocent mentoring until this guy was 18-20 as PS says, this is way overblown.
55 year old boss in position of extreme power innocently mentoring, then starting an affair, with a person aged 18 to 20, whom he'd known since he was ten.
It's a good job people can't get their hands on cheap mobile phones purchased with stored credit cards so there is no actual link to an individual, as that sort of thing could be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes.
I’m willing to bet if I watch it I’ll have even less time for him. His actions are those of a sociopath who has spent decades deceiving people and getting off on it, and this is how he attempts expiation. Check out the timeline on the oh so convenient “tattle wiki” [must be from mumsnet] for the full story and then see how you feel. Literally nobody is sticking up for him.
Yup. I started watching it and the first thing he said was "I think I know how Caroline Flack felt" Boom, feel sorry for me. Then downhill from there.
The thing that annoys me about this is that the media have decided it's ok to take the word of this man as the truth and give him a platform. "I did not groom him..." ah ok yeah then that is all fine thanks Philip. Let's all move on.
He was in touch with a boy of 15 through to 19 when he came into the TV job.
He was 20 when he had sexual contact with him. Between 15 and 20 it was just "chat" that ended in sex. "We were mates. We became mates. ...The whatsapp messages with him were just chat".
chat then something happened in my dressing room...
I've not watched it and won't. I think the issue is that he kept it quiet and was then somehow surprised when it came out, after all the previous press about his official coming out last year or whenever it was. The media have portrayed him and HW and saintly for years and that they can do no wrong/ are the nation's darlings. I feel incredibly sorry for his wife and kids but don't have much sympathy for him as it's really simple - if you don't want press about shagging a younger guy at work because you're famous then just don't shag a younger at work if you're famous. Not difficult. OR do but don't hide it and don't clutch your pearls like you're a victim when you do and then the press find out.
I think those r'ships with colleagues who are half your age are fine IF you don't want to be hounded for it, you're not famous and don't want bad press/ to lose your job. If you don't care about any of those things do what you want but don't do it then moan about being a victim for being found about it, esp when you've got a family devastated by your actions.
Or with someone whose job you secured for them. Personally I think that's the bit that looks worst as he will have reported on Weinstein and the like so will have known how people see that.
tbh while i think schofield needs to shut up and stop doing self-interested interviews, i think it’s extremely creepy that amateur online detectives are parsing through a 15 year old gay kid’s twitter accounts to try to “prove” he was groomed
if he wants to speak about it he has the opportunity to, otherwise i think everyone should leave him alone
Sails it probs all happened (w/out looking at the timelines) well before all the Weinstein stuff but yes agreed, it's the nepotism part that probs winds people up the most and abusing a position of power rather than the age gap and I think that would apply if had been with a female as well
I am struggling a bit with this tbh - his only "crime". seems to have been to have a brief affair with a younger man. If this is no longer acceptable to society why don't we just set a max age difference for which valid consent to sex to be given and make it actually a crime? Otherwise lets leave private lives private.
The team I was in at my old firm had 4-5 couples over the 2 years I was there. They were always at approximately the same level of seniority and it wasn't an issue. They often worked on transactions together.
I have not really been following this, but has the other man actually made a compliant, have we heard from him? Because it look slime PS is a bit difficult and so the pile-on is coming from people who have an axe to grind.
the problem is they met when the runner was 15 and the age of consent is 16
we don’t know what happened between them before the runner was of age (we know phil got him a job on the show when he was 18 and phil says they didn’t start sleeping together until he was 20)
so there’s about a year where there’s lots of speculation
but unless the runner decides to talk publicly, that’s all it is
And what GC said. If we think the age of consent should be 25 or that relationships with age gaps greater than say 10yrs should be banned - just say so.
But frankly a consensual relationship with an 18 yr old should not be anybody else’s issue.
And lets not forget Bowie actually fooked a 15 yr old and remains a national treasure.
Well, quite, and I dont really see how an investigation can prove anything unless the younger man wants to speak up. And not as if other complaints have come to light, either. It’s hardly Jimmy Saville
the longer it goes on the more likely that is minkie
and i also think you’re right that if there were other complaints someone would have come forward in the last two weeks, you can only imagine the mail must be desperate for another shoe to drop
It's the age/power difference/suggestion of grooming that is driving the continued coverage of PS. Arguably not homophobia - the feeding frenzy would be just as intense, if not worse had he done the same with a girl IMO.
I think if there is a homophobic angle its probably not recognition for the fact that age gaps in male homosexual relationships of widely different ages seem to be much more common, as do very casual sexual encounters. I think this is being to a significant extent driven by translating this relationship into hetrosexual norms and looking at it as if it was a male shagging a female, and then judging it on that basis. Apples and pears, what would be really interesting is getting a few older showbiz queens and some young twinks on the telly and asking them what they think. I expect they'll shrug their shoulders and say well yeah, welcome to real life, don't clutch those pearls too tight because have I got some stories for you.
I've never bought this nonsense about his wife not being aware, I don't think he was having an 'affair' in the classic sense.
It's news not because its actual news or justified, but because people love them a scandal, me included. Also the revenge angle, it really does look like night of the long knives
Agree with all that, but there are also safeguarding issues, given his mate, who PS has known since said mate was same age as the latest youngster, and the environment. I’m surprised rof’s parents aren’t more worried than they appear tbh.
I agree his wife would have sensed something. But I accept his daughters would not have known, so the coming- out would have been very stressful for them. More so than the wife.
Is it not possible that the reason the other chap has stayed quiet is that he has, shall we say, entered into an agreement with PS, or did so in 2020, and that it’s the papers who’ve now stitched up PS by finding out he misrepped at the time? Giving them an angle and meaning PS can’t sue them? Wouldn’t you love to know what has really happened? I would.
Because faod I don’t give a toss about anyone of age having it off with anyone else of age. But I do think society needs to ask itself why it turns a blind eye to entertainment stars when they break the law. Of which there is no evidence here faod.
But I do think society needs to ask itself why it turns a blind eye to entertainment stars when they break the law. Of which there is no evidence here faod.
i don’t think anyone could say a “blind eye” has been turned on this one m8 it’s been all over the news for weeks
Surely he has enough cash to go on hols for a few weeks and then come back retired, by which time the papers will have moved on. He needs to stop feeding them, he's released statements and interviews on an almost daily basis.
I'm not convinced there is any evidence of grooming, but it is still grim behaviour. A decades older man with some power over the career of a young person. It's not always straightforward to turn down, that's why they do it.
age gaps in male homosexual relationships of widely different ages seem to be much more common,
There's plenty of that in heterosexual relationships too - the difference I think is that the default assumption is that it's transactional and to some extent exploitative. I wonder is there the same perception amongst the gay community, or do folks think the 50-year old with the 20-year old boyfriend pulled on pure physical attractiveness?
and i don’t agree with pez that the same focus would be given if it was a girl
if it was simon cowell or david williams or something with a 20 year old there’d be a couple of think pieces comparing them to leonardo dicaprio and nobody would give a kittens
before simon rebranded himself as a family man his whole shtick was that he was a massive shagger
if it was simon cowell or david williams or something with a 20 year old there’d be a couple of think pieces comparing them to leonardo dicaprio and nobody would give a kittens
not if said girl had been underage when they met and had been given a spot on The Apprentice or whichever show SC fronts these days
Put it this way if I was a managing partner and pulled strings in my firm to get a trainee a job and then started sleeping with her I think there would be a reasonable outcry and a tap on the shoulder from HR.
There are thousands of teenagers trying to get work as runners in the TV world and they are regularly exploited and I'm sure this wouldn't be the first time that someone helped one get a job and then expected a little something in return.
What Chill and Warren say unusually! He is probably giving interviews as his own life and relationships evolve around this TV programme and his mental health is now shot. He doesn’t appear to have much else of any solidity outside of this.
"Liam payne was 14 when he auditioned in front of cheryl"...
Yes, but Cheryl clearly was not responsible for kick starting his career (the public were, and Simon Cowell was), the age difference is 10 years not 40, by the time Cheryl and Liam got together, he was around 23, and a very rich and relatively powerful man in his own right, with the band having already sold tens of millions of albums and singles. And, they had an actual relationship (as opposed to, as Schofield intimates, a few fumblings in his dressing room), they were open about it, and didn't lie about it.
If Schofield was in his 30s when the other bloke was in his 20s, if the other bloke was already successful or established / wealthy, if they had stayed together, however briefly, (if they were together now, even with their actual age gap), this wouldn't be the "story" that it is.
I don't necessarily disagree that much of the criticism towards Schofield is heavily tinged with homophobia, and am similarly baffled that it is taking up so much airtime, but if you can't see the difference between the Payne / Cole situation, and Schofield's behaviour, then I worry (even more) for you.
I wasn’t an excuse just an explanation as to why he doesn’t shut up, retire and get off that sofa. It’s his life. He is most comfortable with the sofa beneath him.
i’m just saying if it turned out cowell had had an affair with a member of little mix (or whatever) when she was 20 i don’t think anyone would care
I really think people would care! But again, this isn't a male/female relationship, so its largely irrelevant. Its like telling a Mormon you had sex with someone you met in a pub 15 minutes before closing time, and them assuming on the basis of their own experience it could not possibly have been consensual and you must have raped her.
Put it this way if I was a managing partner and pulled strings in my firm to get a trainee a job and then started sleeping with her I think there would be a reasonable outcry and a tap on the shoulder from HR.
There are thousands of teenagers trying to get work as runners in the TV world and they are regularly exploited and I'm sure this wouldn't be the first time that someone helped one get a job and then expected a little something in return.
Are we really suggesting that the only reason he shagged him or whatever they did, he wouldn't have done it with the famous Phillip Schofield but for the job? Again, we're looking at a completely different relationship world, which as far as I can tell is very different in terms of these things than the hetrosexual dating world.
Do we really not have any active Gay people on Rof who can offer a view on this? Terrible reflection on the diversity of the board if so
but if you can't see the difference between the Payne / Cole situation, and Schofield's behaviour, then I worry (even more) for you.
i do see the difference cru, but as i say i don’t think it would have caused as much outrage / interest if cowell had been found to have slept with a singer he’d first met when she was 15 (as long as the singer was 20 when they slept together)
anyway look we’ll never know will we so it’s probably pointless to try to compare with a hypothetical
Both parties were living heterosexual lives at the time, the runner was a child. PS marketed himself for years as married with kids im a patron of a vulnerable kids theatre group and interacted with the kids (all male, no females) on Snapchat et al then picks up one of the vulnerable kids at age 10 grooming him, getting him a job, keeping him close as a PA, Thursday playtime and ITV paid taxis until he comes of legal age.
Don’t know who needs to hear this but there is a power dynamic in most relationships.
This most commonly revolves around age and financial resources.
Schofield’s behaviour is, at best, ick, and appears exploitative. But the underlying homophobia in some of the breathless criticism is appalling. As I’ve said before, bigots can no longer (yet) go fully mask off about their distaste for same sex relationships so have to resort to nudge nudge ‘a lot of people are saying’ insinuations.
PS marketed himself for years as married with kids im a patron of a vulnerable kids theatre group and interacted with the kids (all male, no females) on Snapchat et al then picks up one of the vulnerable kids at age 10 grooming him, getting him a job, keeping him close as a PA, Thursday playtime and ITV paid taxis until he comes of legal age.
if Simon Cowell did the same with a female he'd be toast, just as much as PS now is. Just imagine the frothing from the Mail etc.
What I am struggling with is the disconnect between Schofield presenting as virtually suicidal and how bad what he has admitted to is. If his story is true, yes he had an affair as a married man with a junior colleague and that is not good behaviour but hardly sackcloth and ashes career over stuff.
Both parties were living heterosexual lives at the time, the runner was a child.
He was 20 and they were both males having sex. I don't know what you imagine living a heterosexual life is like, but mine does not involve having homosexual sex*
*depending of course on your view of the status of trans woman
really? I met a long term partner at work.
I’m willing to bet if I watch it I’ll have even less time for him. His actions are those of a sociopath who has spent decades deceiving people and getting off on it, and this is how he attempts expiation. Check out the timeline on the oh so convenient “tattle wiki” [must be from mumsnet] for the full story and then see how you feel. Literally nobody is sticking up for him.
I know I am a centrist dad but I think the key is not to cheat on your spouse with someone at work
The constant reference to 5 or 6 'romantic encounters' is vom. There is nothing 'romantic' about an old man shagging a youth in your dressing room Phil.
It's not all homophobia either. It's probably part of the story but he thinks he wouldn't be criticised if he was having sex with a 20 year old female runner in his dressing room?
The doublethink is really creepy. He’s obvs mentioned the “occasions” because that’s next to come out ( ho ho ). So much of this is drip drip news management. It’s not big it’s not clever. It’s not homophobia to think a relationship with a massive power imbalance and age gap is ickmax.
It does all sound a bit ick but there is no suggestion of anything criminal that I have seen and he has already resigned/been fired from the relevant job. Not really sure why it is still news to be honest.
It’s all a LOT of pearl clutching for something relatively stupid but not horrendous, really. Wonder why he’s being made the fall guy. I reckon there’s some dodgy AF shit. Popbitch inferred as much and I’m always inclined to believe them over the press.
Madders look at the stuff online. You’ve got kids.
I think the key takeaway here is if you're the boss, don't groom children at work for sex.
And that could probably be shortened.
Ok. But he wasn’t a child. However, there’s obviously an issue here with inter colleague relationships and using a position of power and influence. Perhaps ITV need to put a ban on office relationships in place like the Americans do.
It's news because the Great British public would rather engage in tittle tattle about B-list celebrities than the real world (AI, the climate emergency, Sudan, the Balkans)
It smacks to me of “I got you this job that others would kill for and now you’re going to get on your knees and show me how grateful you are” which is wrong whoever is involved.
I think there is some homophobia, and I do not think a person should lose their job for purely an affair at work.
However, I suspect he is a bit of a nasty bastard and this issue is the only thing that some people can be used to take him down for other things he has done.
The affair started when the person was 20. He joined the show aged 18 and Phil knew him before then. The date they first met is somewhst hazy. Interested to know if the rest is public.
The Schofield story just led the news on the 8 am radio 4 news. Radio 4 and the today programme should hang their heads in shame. This is not news
JFC
I am in no way condoning the behaviour but there have been long been rumours that he is a twunt to work with. There is a lot coming out which suggests that people have been waiting for a chance to take him down due to his past behaviour and it looks like this was the incident that went too far for some. It looks like a combination of him being d?ck to work with and being caught lying. The 2020 'reveal' has been exposed for the media stunt it was.I suspect he's been on borrowed time since then. Its shouldn't be headline news everywhere.
I haven't watched the interview but think the fall from grace is a big one, especially for someone with such an ego. Given what happenend to CF, I hope he has some support.
What is it with
altright whingers like Jelly calling everyone groomers at the moment.I think this is all a bit overdone. Not interested beyond if he groomed an underage person. Shouldn’have all this air time
I haven't watched it, but apparently he was vaping throughout which is pretty mental
There's no way in this day and age I would have any kind of relationship with any much younger colleague so it just shows a certain arrogance that he thought the same rules don't apply to him and then to double down he lied about it.
you can be a creepy f*cker without breaking the law
I have it on good authority that in some Scouts units there are adults who wait until the boys in their units turn 18 then start hitting them up on Grindr which is legal if not morally reprehensible
Matthew McGreevy joined a theatre company aged 10, Schofield was a patron.
He set up his first twitter account the week after his 15th birthday. Schofield followed him (not as a follow back). MMG tweeted a few times to PS, but PS didn't respond.
MMG set up a new twitter account, same.
MMG set up a third account, a week after turning 18. PS followed and chatted with him on twitter. Then offered him a job.
Timeline here: https://limegoss.com/phillip-schofield-timeline-events/
He showed me his badge.
If PS's version of events is true, I feel bad for him. Yes, I get that the age gap is icky but if it was all innocent mentoring until this guy was 18-20 as PS says, this is way overblown.
He indeed comes across as a sociopathic narcissist.
55 year old boss in position of extreme power innocently mentoring, then starting an affair, with a person aged 18 to 20, whom he'd known since he was ten.
It's a good job people can't get their hands on cheap mobile phones purchased with stored credit cards so there is no actual link to an individual, as that sort of thing could be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes.
Bertha02 Jun 23 06:39
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I’m willing to bet if I watch it I’ll have even less time for him. His actions are those of a sociopath who has spent decades deceiving people and getting off on it, and this is how he attempts expiation. Check out the timeline on the oh so convenient “tattle wiki” [must be from mumsnet] for the full story and then see how you feel. Literally nobody is sticking up for him.
Yup. I started watching it and the first thing he said was "I think I know how Caroline Flack felt" Boom, feel sorry for me. Then downhill from there.
The thing that annoys me about this is that the media have decided it's ok to take the word of this man as the truth and give him a platform. "I did not groom him..." ah ok yeah then that is all fine thanks Philip. Let's all move on.
He was in touch with a boy of 15 through to 19 when he came into the TV job.
He was 20 when he had sexual contact with him. Between 15 and 20 it was just "chat" that ended in sex. "We were mates. We became mates. ...The whatsapp messages with him were just chat".
chat then something happened in my dressing room...
FFS
If you look at the timeline linked to by others you can also draw further conclusions, not unreasonably imho.
"Men need to learn to keep relationships and the workplace separate."
Do they?!
And presumably you're only referring to gay men?
No he doesn't! That's a ridiculous thing to say.
I've not watched it and won't. I think the issue is that he kept it quiet and was then somehow surprised when it came out, after all the previous press about his official coming out last year or whenever it was. The media have portrayed him and HW and saintly for years and that they can do no wrong/ are the nation's darlings. I feel incredibly sorry for his wife and kids but don't have much sympathy for him as it's really simple - if you don't want press about shagging a younger guy at work because you're famous then just don't shag a younger at work if you're famous. Not difficult. OR do but don't hide it and don't clutch your pearls like you're a victim when you do and then the press find out.
No Ego all men need to learn that you can't have sexual relationships with colleagues who are half your age.
"Men need to learn to keep relationships and the workplace separate."
This is absolute horseshit
have relationships with colleagues. Don't have relationships with people who work for you. It's really simple,
I think those r'ships with colleagues who are half your age are fine IF you don't want to be hounded for it, you're not famous and don't want bad press/ to lose your job. If you don't care about any of those things do what you want but don't do it then moan about being a victim for being found about it, esp when you've got a family devastated by your actions.
Or with someone whose job you secured for them. Personally I think that's the bit that looks worst as he will have reported on Weinstein and the like so will have known how people see that.
that’s the link to the timeline that i saw jelly
tbh while i think schofield needs to shut up and stop doing self-interested interviews, i think it’s extremely creepy that amateur online detectives are parsing through a 15 year old gay kid’s twitter accounts to try to “prove” he was groomed
if he wants to speak about it he has the opportunity to, otherwise i think everyone should leave him alone
Sails it probs all happened (w/out looking at the timelines) well before all the Weinstein stuff but yes agreed, it's the nepotism part that probs winds people up the most and abusing a position of power rather than the age gap and I think that would apply if had been with a female as well
m7 the 1990s called, it wants its homophobia back
I am struggling a bit with this tbh - his only "crime". seems to have been to have a brief affair with a younger man. If this is no longer acceptable to society why don't we just set a max age difference for which valid consent to sex to be given and make it actually a crime? Otherwise lets leave private lives private.
Surely the young dude will now get a big money exclusive reveal all in the Daily Heil or ITV?
I’d tune in for a sexed up dossier
Much better performance than Prince Andrew. 3 and a half stars from me, Clive
The team I was in at my old firm had 4-5 couples over the 2 years I was there. They were always at approximately the same level of seniority and it wasn't an issue. They often worked on transactions together.
The timeline is interesting and informative. Seems pretty clear that he has been very careful to stay on the right side of the law.
Bit like most of our clients who pay us to get them as close to the line as possible…
Amazed anyone wouod have a relationship of that nature in this day and age but only really two people in the world who know how icky it was tbh.
I have not really been following this, but has the other man actually made a compliant, have we heard from him? Because it look slime PS is a bit difficult and so the pile-on is coming from people who have an axe to grind.
No, the other man has not made a complaint.
no he hasn’t said anything
So what’s the problem? Inso far as a major investigation etc, rather than just an HR bollocking?
PS isn’t a very good actor btw. But he is an actor.
the problem is they met when the runner was 15 and the age of consent is 16
we don’t know what happened between them before the runner was of age (we know phil got him a job on the show when he was 18 and phil says they didn’t start sleeping together until he was 20)
so there’s about a year where there’s lots of speculation
but unless the runner decides to talk publicly, that’s all it is
And what GC said. If we think the age of consent should be 25 or that relationships with age gaps greater than say 10yrs should be banned - just say so.
But frankly a consensual relationship with an 18 yr old should not be anybody else’s issue.
And lets not forget Bowie actually fooked a 15 yr old and remains a national treasure.
Well, quite, and I dont really see how an investigation can prove anything unless the younger man wants to speak up. And not as if other complaints have come to light, either. It’s hardly Jimmy Saville
I think the issue is more someone in a position of influence with a much less powerful employee.
As did Jimmy Page
There is definitely a lot of homophobia around this, but it’s absurd btw to think that PS’ wife had no idea he was gay.
nah that wouldn’t merit two straight weeks of news coverage, particularly since he’s resigned / been kicked out
it’s the insinuation that there was grooming (plus the general homophobia) that’s driving all the attention
some women don’t cookie (or do a great job of convincing themselves there’s nothing there)
If it was about homophobia then the outcry would have been when he first came out.
I still think it’s just colleagues looking to put the boot in because they dont like working with him.
There doesnt seem to be any evidence of grooming.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/phillip-schofields-friendsh…
the homophobia is the idea that gay men prey on kids minkie, not just that he’s gay
it’s the “well of course there must have been something going on, why else would he add him on twitter / get him the job” etc
I think it’s rubbish. They knew each other for 5 years before anything happened. It’s hardly preying on a youth.
And as for unfaithful to his wife - yes that is very sad. And probably a feature in the coming - out of any gay man of a certain age.
the longer it goes on the more likely that is minkie
and i also think you’re right that if there were other complaints someone would have come forward in the last two weeks, you can only imagine the mail must be desperate for another shoe to drop
It's the age/power difference/suggestion of grooming that is driving the continued coverage of PS. Arguably not homophobia - the feeding frenzy would be just as intense, if not worse had he done the same with a girl IMO.
I think if there is a homophobic angle its probably not recognition for the fact that age gaps in male homosexual relationships of widely different ages seem to be much more common, as do very casual sexual encounters. I think this is being to a significant extent driven by translating this relationship into hetrosexual norms and looking at it as if it was a male shagging a female, and then judging it on that basis. Apples and pears, what would be really interesting is getting a few older showbiz queens and some young twinks on the telly and asking them what they think. I expect they'll shrug their shoulders and say well yeah, welcome to real life, don't clutch those pearls too tight because have I got some stories for you.
I've never bought this nonsense about his wife not being aware, I don't think he was having an 'affair' in the classic sense.
It's news not because its actual news or justified, but because people love them a scandal, me included. Also the revenge angle, it really does look like night of the long knives
Agree with all that, but there are also safeguarding issues, given his mate, who PS has known since said mate was same age as the latest youngster, and the environment. I’m surprised rof’s parents aren’t more worried than they appear tbh.
I agree his wife would have sensed something. But I accept his daughters would not have known, so the coming- out would have been very stressful for them. More so than the wife.
Is it not possible that the reason the other chap has stayed quiet is that he has, shall we say, entered into an agreement with PS, or did so in 2020, and that it’s the papers who’ve now stitched up PS by finding out he misrepped at the time? Giving them an angle and meaning PS can’t sue them? Wouldn’t you love to know what has really happened? I would.
Because faod I don’t give a toss about anyone of age having it off with anyone else of age. But I do think society needs to ask itself why it turns a blind eye to entertainment stars when they break the law. Of which there is no evidence here faod.
i don’t think anyone could say a “blind eye” has been turned on this one m8 it’s been all over the news for weeks
I closed my eyes
Drew back the curtain…
Surely he has enough cash to go on hols for a few weeks and then come back retired, by which time the papers will have moved on. He needs to stop feeding them, he's released statements and interviews on an almost daily basis.
I'm not convinced there is any evidence of grooming, but it is still grim behaviour. A decades older man with some power over the career of a young person. It's not always straightforward to turn down, that's why they do it.
There's plenty of that in heterosexual relationships too - the difference I think is that the default assumption is that it's transactional and to some extent exploitative. I wonder is there the same perception amongst the gay community, or do folks think the 50-year old with the 20-year old boyfriend pulled on pure physical attractiveness?
and i don’t agree with pez that the same focus would be given if it was a girl
if it was simon cowell or david williams or something with a 20 year old there’d be a couple of think pieces comparing them to leonardo dicaprio and nobody would give a kittens
before simon rebranded himself as a family man his whole shtick was that he was a massive shagger
Simon Cowell and David Walliams……?
Would you like to borrow this trimmer?
not if said girl had been underage when they met and had been given a spot on The Apprentice or whichever show SC fronts these days
liam payne was 14 when he auditioned in front of cheryl
i’m just saying if it turned out cowell had had an affair with a member of little mix (or whatever) when she was 20 i don’t think anyone would care
Put it this way if I was a managing partner and pulled strings in my firm to get a trainee a job and then started sleeping with her I think there would be a reasonable outcry and a tap on the shoulder from HR.
There are thousands of teenagers trying to get work as runners in the TV world and they are regularly exploited and I'm sure this wouldn't be the first time that someone helped one get a job and then expected a little something in return.
What Chill and Warren say unusually! He is probably giving interviews as his own life and relationships evolve around this TV programme and his mental health is now shot. He doesn’t appear to have much else of any solidity outside of this.
https://tattle.life/wiki/phillip-schofield
"Liam payne was 14 when he auditioned in front of cheryl"...
Yes, but Cheryl clearly was not responsible for kick starting his career (the public were, and Simon Cowell was), the age difference is 10 years not 40, by the time Cheryl and Liam got together, he was around 23, and a very rich and relatively powerful man in his own right, with the band having already sold tens of millions of albums and singles. And, they had an actual relationship (as opposed to, as Schofield intimates, a few fumblings in his dressing room), they were open about it, and didn't lie about it.
If Schofield was in his 30s when the other bloke was in his 20s, if the other bloke was already successful or established / wealthy, if they had stayed together, however briefly, (if they were together now, even with their actual age gap), this wouldn't be the "story" that it is.
I don't necessarily disagree that much of the criticism towards Schofield is heavily tinged with homophobia, and am similarly baffled that it is taking up so much airtime, but if you can't see the difference between the Payne / Cole situation, and Schofield's behaviour, then I worry (even more) for you.
I wasn’t an excuse just an explanation as to why he doesn’t shut up, retire and get off that sofa. It’s his life. He is most comfortable with the sofa beneath him.
I really think people would care! But again, this isn't a male/female relationship, so its largely irrelevant. Its like telling a Mormon you had sex with someone you met in a pub 15 minutes before closing time, and them assuming on the basis of their own experience it could not possibly have been consensual and you must have raped her.
Are we really suggesting that the only reason he shagged him or whatever they did, he wouldn't have done it with the famous Phillip Schofield but for the job? Again, we're looking at a completely different relationship world, which as far as I can tell is very different in terms of these things than the hetrosexual dating world.
Do we really not have any active Gay people on Rof who can offer a view on this? Terrible reflection on the diversity of the board if so
i do see the difference cru, but as i say i don’t think it would have caused as much outrage / interest if cowell had been found to have slept with a singer he’d first met when she was 15 (as long as the singer was 20 when they slept together)
anyway look we’ll never know will we so it’s probably pointless to try to compare with a hypothetical
Both parties were living heterosexual lives at the time, the runner was a child. PS marketed himself for years as married with kids im a patron of a vulnerable kids theatre group and interacted with the kids (all male, no females) on Snapchat et al then picks up one of the vulnerable kids at age 10 grooming him, getting him a job, keeping him close as a PA, Thursday playtime and ITV paid taxis until he comes of legal age.
"anyway look we’ll never know will we so it’s probably pointless to try to compare with a hypothetical"
Erm, you're the one seeking to do exactly that.
Don’t know who needs to hear this but there is a power dynamic in most relationships.
This most commonly revolves around age and financial resources.
Schofield’s behaviour is, at best, ick, and appears exploitative. But the underlying homophobia in some of the breathless criticism is appalling. As I’ve said before, bigots can no longer (yet) go fully mask off about their distaste for same sex relationships so have to resort to nudge nudge ‘a lot of people are saying’ insinuations.
Oyster bay- why do you keep posting that link?
if Simon Cowell did the same with a female he'd be toast, just as much as PS now is. Just imagine the frothing from the Mail etc.
at age 10?
this keeps getting younger every time the story is repeated, i’ve now heard 15, then 13, then 11 and now 10
I have zero distaste for same sex relationships, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest I’ve no idea why it would.
I have a lot of distaste for someone grooming a child.
What I am struggling with is the disconnect between Schofield presenting as virtually suicidal and how bad what he has admitted to is. If his story is true, yes he had an affair as a married man with a junior colleague and that is not good behaviour but hardly sackcloth and ashes career over stuff.
He was 20 and they were both males having sex. I don't know what you imagine living a heterosexual life is like, but mine does not involve having homosexual sex*
*depending of course on your view of the status of trans woman
Read the tattle wiki then guy it’s all in there
Remember when all this happened he was posing as a straight married man with kids so no threat to a vulnerable teenage boy.
someone safe who was kind enough to take an interest in young kids and help them with their careers as he had been himself.
except he wasn’t and it wasn’t altruism.
Watched the interview.
He's in complete control of himself, very deliberate use of words. Complete contrast to Prince Andrew. He's more intelligent and more self aware.
If he he putting on an act he is massively over doing it - as per my above.
Given the what’s app group called ‘the event’ that ps set up to prepare for his coming out on TM, Ofc it’s rehearsed and staged.
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