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Louise Thomas
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Phillip Schofield has said his sexual orientation made the repercussions of hisThis Morning affair scandal worse.
The former presenter, 62, left ITV last May after he admitted he had lied about having a “consensual on-off relationship” with a younger man, which took place while Schofield was still married to his wife Stephanie Lowe.
Discussing the controversy during the second episode of his Channel 5 comeback series Cast Away, which sees him trying to survive on an island in the Indian Ocean for 10 days, Schofield accuses the TV industry of double standards.
“People say, ah the publicity machine [is] back in full swing. He’s working his way back in,” Schofield says of his slow return to the public eye. “‘Shamed, disgraced Phillip Schofield who had an affair.’”
He continues: “Strangely, I think another TV presenter or two might have done exactly the same thing. Difference is [they’re] heterosexual.”
Schofield then claims age-gap relationships are “not an unusual thing in the gay world”.
“That’s not an unusual thing in the straight world,” he adds. “But if that had been the case with me and it had been a woman. Pat on the back. ‘Well done mate.’”
The former presenter admitted he would never return to a daytime chat show programme because of the way he had been treated by people in the sector.
“I love telly. I’ve got telly in my bones,” he said. “But I won’t sit on a sofa again…I’ve been hurt so badly by that sort of telly and by some of the people in that sort of telly.
“You get to the point where you think ‘I don’t want to do it anymore.’”
When reports of Schofield’s affair emerged, the presenter said he arranged for the teenager to get work experience with ITV when he was around 19 and denied having any form of sexual contact with him until he was around 20 years old, when the relationship was “consensual and fully legal”.
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Viewers have been left incensed at the news of the former presenter’s TV comeback and have called the move a “disgrace”.
One person said the presenter was “desperate for attention” while dozens joked about the concept of the show, which sees Schofield stranded alone, as one commented: “Absolutely nobody wants to work with him so he’s doing a show that has no cast or crew.”
Schofield addresses the hostility towards him during the first Cast Away episode, saying: “I think there’d be an awful lot of people [who] hope that I never come back. Goodbye. Thank you.
“‘What happened? He got washed out to sea. Well, there we go.’”
Cast Away continues until 2 October.
