Phillip Schofield has opened up about the moment he came out to his family.
The 57-year-old TV presenter made the announcement about his sexuality on Instagram stories, writing: “With the strength and support of my wife and my daughters, I have been coming to terms with the fact that I am gay.”
Later, during an emotional sit-down chat with co-host and friend Holly Willoughby on This Morning, he spoke about the difficult moment he told his two daughters that he is gay.
“It wasn’t easy, but they were – and they are – so amazing with their love and support,” he said.
“I sat them down and told them, and they jumped up and gave me a big hug, a long hug, and then they hugged [my wife] Steph, and they said, ‘It’s okay, this is fine, we’ll be okay, we’ll always be a family’. ‘Us four’ is what we always call ourselves.”
The reaction from his mother was equally positive.
“It was the same with my mum, she’s been on the phone all morning, ‘Hope you’re okay, thinking of you’. I went down to see her in Cornwall and I told her, and she said, ‘Oh, okay, well I don’t care’, and that’s the same with everyone,” he added.
Phillip also opened up about his decision to come out now, at the age of 57.
“You know this has been bothering me for a very long time, and I think everybody does these things at their own speed, when they feel the time is right,” he said.
“There’s no question that it has in recent times consumed my head, and has become an issue in my head. And so, I got to the stage where I thought, we sit here everyday, and some amazingly brave person is sitting here, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god you’re so brave’, and I have to be that person.”
“All you can be in your life is honest with yourself, and I was getting to the point where I knew I wasn’t honest with myself. I was getting to a point where I didn’t like myself very much because I wasn’t being honest with myself.
“When is the right time to do it? And as a family, [now] is the right time.”
Watch the emotional moment here or below.
