Phillip Schofield claims his sexuality made the backlash to his affair scandal worse: ‘I’ve been hurt so badly’

Phillip Schofield has said that the backlash to his This Morning affair scandal was made worse because of his sexuality.

Schofield resigned from the daytime ITV show last year after admitting to a “consensual on-off relationship” with a younger male colleague, which he dubbed “unwise, but not illegal”.

At the time, the 62-year-old said he had lied to bosses at ITV about the relationship, which occurred while he was still married to his wife, Stephanie Lowe.

Now, according to a report by The Independent, Schofield has addressed the scandal on a three-part TV series for Channel 5, Cast Away, his first TV appearance since quitting This Morning.

“People say, ‘Ah the publicity machine [is] back in full swing. He’s working his way back in’,” Schofield said on the show, which sees the celebrity sent to survive on an island in the Indian Ocean for 10 days. “Shamed, disgraced Phillip Schofield who had an affair.”

Continuing, he said: “Strangely, I think another TV presenter or two might have done exactly the same thing. Difference is [they’re] heterosexual.”

Schofield went on to say that large age gaps are “not an unusual thing in the gay world”.

He added: “That’s not an unusual thing in the straight world. But if that had been the case with me, and it had been a woman: pat on the back. ‘Well done, mate.’”

Elsewhere in the programme, Schofield said that he would not return to daytime TV chat shows in the future.

“I’ve been hurt so badly by that sort of telly and by some of the people in that sort of telly,” he explained. “You get to the point where you think, I don’t want to do it anymore.”

He also said that coming out later in life had provided “more anguish than joy because I’m fully aware of the damage that it leaves”.

Phillip Schofield: Cast Away airs tonight (30 September) on Channel 5.

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