Rupert Everett slams Phillip Schofield coverage as ‘homophobic’: ‘Millions of people have affairs’
British actor Rupert Everett said the media should “drop” its “outrageous” cover of Phillip Schofield’s affair with a younger male colleague. (Getty/BBC)
Actor Rupert Everett has slammed the “homophobic” media coverage of Phillip Schofield’s affair as “outrageous”.
Schofield resigned from ITV, was let go by his talent agency YMU and dropped as an ambassador for youth charity The Prince’s Trust after admitting to an “unwise but not illegal relationship” with a younger male staffer on This Morning.
During an interview with The Sun, Schofield suggested that the reaction to his affair had been mired by homophobia and wouldn’t have been as explosive if he wasn’t gay.
Speaking to Channel 4 about the media fallout from Phillip Schofield’s affair, Rupert Everett defended the former ITV host and agreed that the backlash is homophobic.
“What’s he done? He’s married and has had an affair with someone that’s legal to have an affair with,” Everett said.
The My Best Friend’s Wedding star continued: “Unless there’s something else that we haven’t heard about they should drop it.
“It’s outrageous, this kind of Puritan fascism that’s going on. If it’s just about him having an affair and lying to his agency – why can’t you lie to your agent?”
Rupert Everett said the affair wasn’t the business of anyone but Phillip Schofield, and he said it’s “another moment of insanity” how much attention the scandal has gotten.
The British actor said the backlash against Schofield is “on the front pages of all our newspapers” despite there being “more important things to talk about”.
“We’ve got to a point in life where we just want to scratch each other’s eyes out,” he said. “That’s all. That’s all there is to it. It’s become… we are literally like a pack of dogs in a dog back.”
Everetty continued: “And it seems to me that the fallback position is just destruct, to destroy anyone we can as soon as they do anything that looks like it’s wrong. And I don’t know.
“I just want to know what it is that’s supposed to be wrong because, OK, you can say it’s immoral or whatever.
“But that’s your morality if you have a wife and a lover. Lots of people have had them across history.
“Millions of people have had them.
“People are so unforgiving now and humourless and intransigent. And I think that’s one of the main problems of today.”
In a separate interview with the BBC, Phillip Schofield said he’d “lost everything” after the affair came to light. He described how the scandal had a “catastrophic effect” on his mental health and that the coverage of the relationship has been “relentless” in the British media.
The 61-year-old presenter has also denied accusations that he “groomed” his younger male colleague, whom Schofield met for the first time when the boy was aged 15.
Schofield admitted the affair was a “grave error”. He also emphasised they were “not boyfriends” and that his colleague was 20-years-old when they first had any kind of sexual contact.
