Schofield fears leaving home amid affair backlash and spitting concerns

Phillip Schofield has expressed his fear of leaving his house and being spat on in public after the exposure of his affair with a younger male colleague. The presenter resigned from ITV last week and was dropped by his talent agency, YMU, after admitting to having an “unwise, but not illegal” relationship with the man he worked with on This Morning. Schofield’s affair occurred while he was still married to Stephanie Lowe and before he publicly came out as gay. He had previously denied having a relationship with a colleague when questioned by ITV about rumours.

In an interview published on Friday evening, he told The Sun: “I do not know a time I will be able to walk out of the door. I don’t have any spirit. My friends tell me, ‘It will get better’. It won’t. Not now. Not this one.”

Schofield told the newspaper he had never previously been abused in the street but now fears being shouted at or spat on, saying: “Are they spitting on me because I had an affair at work and lied about it? You watch all these layers of you slide away and slide away and slide away – the things that were dear to you. But I deserve it. It’s my fault. I deserve it.”

He added: “I am getting by hour by hour. I have got my girls and my friends.”

The 61-year-old said he had been hounded on Twitter and Instagram since the revelations and has now deleted all apps and silenced notifications, insisting he will never use social media again. “Why would I ever, ever go back there?”, he told The Sun.

ITV has launched an external review to establish the facts around the affair between Schofield and the male colleague – after the presenter lied to his bosses, colleagues and wife about the relationship.