Phillip Schofield dives deep into a caller’s coming out journey in moving resurfaced video
Legendary TV presenter Phillip Schofield. (ITV)
Phillip Schofield shared an emotional conversation with a caller on This Morning about her coming out journey three years before he came out as gay.
The woman, called Nik, phoned into This Morning for a segment where Holly and Phil ask viewers what they would tell their 18-year-old selves.
“I would tell my 18-year-old self, it’s OK to be you,” Nik told Holly and Phil, the Daily Mail reports.
Nik continued: “I knew at 18 I was gay, and I was so ashamed of it. I mean, I really can’t tell you how ashamed of it I was. I went on to get married and have children and it took me until I was 37 to finally admit who I was.”
“What happened to your life then?” Phil asked.
Nik replied: “I left my husband and it was all very amicable and I met a woman and we’re going to celebrate four years of marriage in March. I’ve never been happier.”
Phillip Schofield asked lesbian This Morning caller: ‘How did the family react?’
Phil then asked her: “What about family reaction. How did the family react?”
“Really well,” Nik replied. “I think that was my worry, but if I think about it logically I don’t know why. Nobody cares. If people care for you, they don’t care who you go out with. It makes no difference.”
Phil pointed out that this is not always the case, reminding her: “Not all families are like yours though, some families do care. You’ve got to be careful how you do something like this.”
The caller agreed, but said: “At the end of the day, your happiness is the most important thing,” to which Phil nodded in agreement.
She continued: “This is where you sort of have to be selfish. You don’t have to rub it in everybody’s faces. I strongly believe that if people love you, they want you to be happy, and if that’s what makes you happy then it shouldn’t matter.”
Not all families are like yours though, some families do care. You’ve got to be careful how you do something like this.
After the interview, Phil reflected on another interview he and Holly had done with a woman who came out in her 80s.
“She had exactly the same thing, but she’d gone through her entire life without the relationship she always wanted,” Phil said.
“It’s a terrible way to live your life,” Holly replied.
Schofield came out as gay publicly last week.
The This Morning interview has re-emerged less than a week after Phillip Schofield publicly came out as gay in an Instagram post.
The 57-year-old wrote: “You never know what’s going on in someone’s seemingly perfect life, what issues they are struggling with, or the state of their wellbeing.”
“And so you won’t know what has been consuming me for the last few years.
“With the strength and support of my wife and daughters, I have been coming to terms with the fact that I am gay.
“This is something that has caused heart-breaking conversations at home. I have been married to Steph for nearly 27 years, and we have two beautiful grown-up daughters, Molly and Ruby.
“My family have held me so close; they have tried to cheer me up, to smother me with kindness and love, despite their own confusion.
“Yet still I can’t sleep and there have been some very dark moments.
“My inner conflict contrasts with an outside world that has changed so very much for the better.”
