Jeremy Clarkson has slammed the recent criticism of his former ITV colleague Phillip Schofield.
The ex This Morning host has faced major backlash in recent days, after admitting to having an affair with a younger male colleague while he was married to his wife Steph.
Phillip described his relationship with the younger man as “unwise, but not illegal”, and later denied allegations that he “groomed” his former partner.
In an interview with The UK Sun, Phillip explained that the man was 15 when he first met him and that he was “maybe” in his mid-50s.
The now 61-year-old insisted that their relationship did not begin until a few years later when the man got a job at ITV, and he also said their relationship was “consensual”.
In the same interview, Phillip revealed he’s afraid to leave the house after admitting to the affair.
He also admitted he “wouldn’t be here” if it wasn’t for his daughters, and said he now knows how the late Caroline Flack felt before she tragically took her own life.
In a new column for The Sunday Times, Jeremy wrote about the public outrage to Phillip’s affair admission, describing it as a “witch-hunt”.
He wrote: “He maintains that his lover was over the age of consent when their relationship became physical, but that hasn’t silenced the howls of disgust. And I find that weird.”
“We casually roll our eyes when we hear that Leonardo DiCaprio’s new girlfriend is three and we even nod appreciatively when we learn that the age gap between Al Pacino and his pregnant girlfriend is 54 years. Which means that when he was starring as an old man in Scent of a Woman, she wasn’t even an embryo.”
“But Phil and his toy boy? Noooo. That’s totally unacceptable…”
“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.”
Speaking about the affair, Phillip told The UK Sun that he worked with the man for a short period of time and they had become friends.
“Then one day something happened that just changed it. That is the moment I look back on, and regret so deeply.”
“It was in my dressing room in 2017, it was a consensual moment, it was mutual. It was not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates.”
“It wasn’t feelings (I was getting), it was more like mates: excitement,” Phillip continued. “I was really struggling with my sexuality at that time in the build up to what happened.”
“But over a period of time it happened maybe five or six times,” he said. “We just didn’t think anyone knew, there was no lying, we thought, stupidly, that nobody knew.”
“You look at yourself. I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career. I know I did that. And there is no excuse. I won’t put forward an excuse. No one did anything wrong apart from me.”
Phillip also denied claims he “groomed” the man in question, after photos emerged of their first meeting when he was a teenager, saying: “I did not, I did not [groom him].”
“There are accusations of all sorts of things,” Phillip continued. “It never came across that way [an abuse of power] because we’d become mates. I don’t know about that.”
“But of course I understand that there will be a massive judgment, but bearing in mind, I have never exercised that anywhere else.”
“I assume somebody, somewhere, assumed something was going on, correctly, and didn’t say anything.”
“At the time I did not think about it possibly ruining my career. I really probably only thought about it when I saw the rumour mill, and saw it growing.”
“Then I saw the link with the drama school photo all those years before, and thought, ‘This looks shocking’.”
“But I didn’t lie to protect my career, he didn’t want his name in public. He wanted his own life.”
“The lies grew bigger and bigger and bigger. It was affecting both of us deeply. It got to the stage where it was out of control and for whatever cost, it had to stop.”
“I have massive guilt, and regret. I’ve made a mistake, I’ve had an affair at work.”
During the interview, Phillip apologised a number of time – including to his former This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby, and his wife of 30 years Stephanie; however, he said his “greatest apology” was to the man.
“I think my greatest apology must go to him. It has brought the greatest misery into his totally innocent life, his totally innocent family, his totally innocent friends,” he said.
“It has brought the greatest grief to them. I haven’t spoken to him since this s**t show kicked off, but when this was all beginning to get out of control, I paid for his lawyers to independently work on his behalf.”
“I am deeply sorry and I apologise to him because I should have known better. I should have acted the way I have always acted. I should not have done it. I’m sorry. And I will forever be sorry. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified.”
Phillip also denied a number of shocking claims that have emerged since his affair came to light, including allegations the man received “hush money” or signed an NDA preventing him from speaking out.
The 61-year-old also shut down speculation he got him a job on This Morning.
He said: “I told him, ‘I think I can get you an interview but I can’t get you the job. If you get in and screw it up I can’t save you.”
“He got the job on his own merits and started working on the show.”
Addressing the backlash he’s received since the affair came to light, Phillip admitted: “I am in a very bad way. Mentally, utterly, utterly broken. And if it hadn’t been for my girls last week I wouldn’t be here.”
“I know I deserve it but they said, ‘Don’t you dare, we’re here to look after you’. I feel embarrassed and ashamed. I have just felt like I was going lower and lower and lower and lower. And then, this bizarre, numbness washes over you, like a selfishness.”
“I’ve had such a s*** couple of years, and with this ultimate final cataclysm, I looked ahead at nothing and the girls said, ‘Don’t, we are here to look after you. Don’t you dare do it on our watch’.”
“And that took me one step back and they won’t leave me alone. They were guarding me.”
Phillip revealed he’s deleted all social media off his phone due to the abuse he’s been receiving online.
“AI won’t kill off the human race — it is social media,” he said.
“Because — what is the saying? — a lie goes all the way around the world before the truth has even put its boots on. It’s invention and it grows and grows and it is like cancer. Social media is cancer.
“You can’t stop it. There are completely innocent people caught up in it, and they are then put on trial. It is what we have become. Who is our next victim? Bring them down, now someone else.
“And that, to me, is the worst. There are good parts to social media but the bad parts are vicious, vile, deeply homophobic and so… It is a witch hunt.”
“It continues and continues. Do they not know there is a human being at the end of this? Do you actually want me to die? Is that the end game?”
“I know doing an interview with you is not going to make that stop,” Phillip continued.
“It won’t stop it. I just want to do everything I possibly can to say it’s my fault; don’t go after him, don’t go after his friends, don’t go after his family. Nobody did anything wrong apart from me.”
“I am not sleeping, I am not eating,” he said. “There’s a lot of Southern Comfort.”
“My mind is in constant, utter turmoil. I think back to regrets, forwards to… What do I do now? What I am going to do now?”
“I do not think I will be able to walk down a street ever again. It is like everybody knows. I am dressed like this because I haven’t been able to go home. I can’t go out. I don’t think a charity will want to be associated with me.”
“I got dropped by The Prince’s Trust, which I understand, but it broke my heart. I’ve lost everything. It’s all gone. Telly was my safe space, the one thing I loved. Now I don’t know if I will ever work on telly again.”
“I don’t know what my identity is any more. I don’t know who I am now. What happens in six months time? What am I going to do?”
“I have the rest of my life now to try and plan for Steph and the girls, and hope that I can look after them.”
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