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Phillip Schofield said his “career is over” after the famed ITV presenter stepped down from This Morning with “immediate effect” and days later admitted he had lied to bosses and his colleagues about having an affair with a young male colleague.
The 61-year-old has been defended by Jeremy Clarkson, 63, who waded into the furore, alleging the This Morning presenter is the victim of a witch hunt for being “exactly what he says he was – gay”.
The former Top Gear presenter argued the 30-plus year age gap between Phil and his younger lover, who was a runner on the ITV show, is being commented on in ways rarely applied to straight male stars.
He made reference to Hollywood actors Al Pacino, 83, whose girlfriend, 29, is expecting a baby as well as Robert De Niro, 79, is expecting another child with his younger partner.
Speaking on his GB News programme today, Eamonn Holmes, 63, blasted Jeremy for coming to Phil’s defence over the weekend, saying, “Clarkson didn’t work there, what does he know?… Nothing.”
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Addressing Phillip’s interview with his co-host Isabel Webster, Eamonn insisted he doesn’t believe his former colleague has only made “one mistake” during his forty year career.
“He said in his forty odd years of broadcasting that he’s made one mistake, he had one kiss that he shouldn’t have had,” Eamonn commented.
“I put it to anyone watching today that if you have kissed Phillip Schofield let us know. Let us see if that figure of one grows to the figure that I believe it is probably at.”
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He went on: “He’s admitted he is a liar. You should see the emails, the texts and the messages I’ve been sent over the past week. I think he’s getting off very very lucky.
“Like everybody else he lied to me, I was happy to stand by him until I found out that he was lying… This isn’t about him being gay, not in the slightest.”
Phillip came out as gay in 2020 and was supported by his This Morning colleagues and his family including his wife Steph at the time of his announcement.
Jeremy wrote in The Sunday Times: “I’ve never seen a witch-hunt like it, and what baffles me most of all is that, as things stand, no crime has been committed. I don’t know him at all well and have no skin in the game, but it seems to me he is only guilty of being what he said he was: gay.”
Two weeks ago, Philip sensationally quit This Morning after being on the show for 21 years.
A week later, he quit ITV altogether after admitting he had lied about having a sexual relationship with a young man who worked on the production team.
In a BBC interview on Thursday, Schofield said his affair had “never come across” as an abuse of power because he and his lover were “mates”.
Phil told The Sun: “I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career. There is no excuse.
“No one did anything wrong apart from me.”
