'There is an element of homophobia about the Phillip…

'There is an element of homophobia about the Phillip Schofield witch hunt - enough is enough'

Well, that Phillip Schofield controversy just got interesting.

I’ve tried to avoid the witch-hunt of the TV presenter that’s been dragging on - I find such pile-ons to be sanctimonious vomit.

It’s typical of the Brits’ “build ‘em up to knock ‘em down” celebrity culture, with the added toxicity of social media.

Let he without sin cast the first stone, and all that.

But it got my attention when Schofield came out yesterday and gave his own version of events.

He talked at length to a newspaper and the BBC’s Amol Rajan, saying: “It was a consensual moment - I am not a groomer.”

And whatever you think of the scandal, he made some valid points about the hypocritical culture of judgement and shame we live in today.

This Morning host Phil, 61, had an affair with a 20-year-old runner on the show back in 2017.

So he’s rapidly gone from being the hero of breakfast TV - commended as brave for coming out in his 50s - to some kind of predator figure hiding dark secrets.

All for having what amounts to - at least according to Schofield - a work fling that was kept quiet out of a mutual desire for discretion.

Personally, I think it would have been worse had he gone around the place mouthing off about it.

But this is where we’re at, in today’s puritanical times.

It’s now a social sin to have sex with anyone from work - and if they are younger than you, then it is automatically an “abuse of power.”

But it begs the question: at what point do we decide that people have agency to make their own decisions themselves?

Do we allow young men and women the freedom to choose for themselves once they are over 18? Or is it patronisingly assumed they must always be the victim?

Some people are drawn to older partners, or don’t care or consider age gaps. Some excitable young women at the start of their careers - myself included - embrace the sexual power play of the office.

I agree with Schofield’s view that there is an element of homophobia about it all.

He made the point that nobody destroys Leonardo DiCaprio over the similar age differences with his numerous girlfriends.

“There’s a difference. It’s accepted by DiCaprio, but it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world.

“People are attracted to, or have relationships, wise or unwise, with people of different ages.”

He also raised how he was “really struggling” with his sexuality at the time “in the run-up to what happened.”

Certainly the release of such frustrations may have blinded him to the consequences of such recklessness in the high moral #metoo era.

He was trying to push down sexual feelings he could not ignore, and it sounds like they burst out when the opportunity presented. Being only human, he gave into temptation.

I wonder did Phil realise he was making a pact that day back in 2020 when he came out as gay live on breakfast TV?

For all the support he got, it was only on condition that he remain a perfect person for life. That he box himself into the mould of what gay author Brett Easton Ellis calls: “gay man as magical elf.”

Ellis says this safe stereotype is only accepted once he: ”appears before us as some kind of saintly ET.

“Whose sole purpose is to remind us about tolerance and prejudices and be a symbol, instead of just being a gay dude.”

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