Sir Elton John believes a lot of the conversation around Phillip Schofield's affair has been 'homophobic'.
The longtime ITV presenter admitted last month that he had a consensual relationship with a younger man while he was married to his wife.
The revelation saw Schofield leave This Morning after two decades and cop severe criticism from those closest to him as well as the general public.
However, Sir Elton believes this wouldn't have been much of a news story if the couple at the centre of it was straight.
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In an interview with the Radio Times, the 76-year-old said: "I feel that the Phillip Schofield thing has been totally homophobic.
"If it was a straight guy in a fling with a young woman, it wouldn't even make the papers."
He was speaking in the context of how a wave of anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments are spreading across the United States.
Elton John admitted he doesn't know how bad that rhetoric is in the UK 'because I haven't been here that much', but from what he's seen it hasn't been very kind to Schofield.
But he's worried about the US and how far things will go.
"There's a law now that, if you visit a doctor in Florida, they can refuse to treat you if you're gay, which I find just unbelievable," he said in his interview.
"We seem to be going backwards. And that spreads. It's like a virus that the LGBTQ+ movement is suffering."
In his first lengthy interview since the revelation was made about his former lover, Schofield said the commentary on the relationship had been brutal.
He told The BBC he was ‘utterly broken’ over how the scandal erupted.
“I am in a very bad way. Mentally, utterly, utterly broken,” he told the outlet.
“And if it hadn’t been for my girls last week I wouldn’t be here.”
He added upon learning he had been dropped by The King’s Trust, he was ‘heartbroken’.
“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,” he continued.
“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.”
In a separate interview with The Sun, the television personality said that while he is 'ashamed', he claimed he didn’t ‘groom’ the young man.
He added that the relationship was ‘consensual’ and ‘mutual’.
Topics: Elton John, Phillip Schofield, News
Stewart Perrie