Caroline Flack’s mother messages Philip Schofield hitting out at ‘homophobia’ in pursuit of presenter

Christine Flack said she hoped the former ITV presenter had “done the right thing” by admitting to his secret affair with a younger male colleague and that the matter would be settled.

Love Island host Flack was found dead in February 2020 at the age of 40, and a coroner later ruled she killed herself after learning that prosecutors were going to press ahead with an assault charge after an incident involving her boyfriend Lewis Burton.

Speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight, her mother said Schofield and his former lover were going through an “awful time” and urged them not to do “anything silly”.

During an interview with the BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan on Friday, Schofield said he understood how Flack had felt, saying: “If my daughters hadn’t been there then I wouldn’t be here.”

Ms Flack said: “He knew Caroline and I must say, when she died he was very upset.

“And I think he’s now realising even more what she went through. Being in the media he knew what she was going through.

“But until it happens to you, you feel sad but you don’t understand.

“He’s trying to put things straight. But I don’t think it will end there.

“I hope he’s done the right thing. I hope he feels better. I hope people now will let it settle. He’s lost his job, he’s lost his world. I think that’s enough. I think that’s enough for anybody.”

Schofield told the BBC that the fallout in the media after the affair revelations had been “relentless”, which Ms Flack said was “exactly” how her daughter had felt.

“Every day she would try to be a bit stronger, which I should imagine Phillip is,” she said.

“But you get more and more thrown at you. It’s not only him, it is his daughters. Luckily he’s got them there for support.

“But it’s his family. His wife, his mum. Everyone that’s around him. Everybody suffers – but not as much as him.”

Ms Flack also criticised ITV, saying the broadcaster had “learned nothing” from her daughter’s death and that on-screen talent were treated as “commodities”.

“I know it’s a lovely job and they earn money. But also the television stations earn money from them… they’re not commodities, they’re people,” she told Newsnight, adding that Schofield and the younger man “should have been looked after”.

“I hate the thought that Phillip and this young man are going through such an awful time,” she said.

“It’s bad enough when it’s in private, but when it’s in every single paper and first thing on the news, it’s just ridiculous. Wait to see what happens. Let’s hope for the best.

“I send my regards to Phillip and the young lad, and hope they get over this. Don’t do anything silly.”

In a statement, ITV said: “The relationships we have with those we work with are based on trust.

“Phillip made assurances to us and his agency which he now acknowledges were untrue and we feel badly let down.

“As a producer and broadcaster, ITV takes its responsibilities around duty of care seriously and has robust and well-established processes in place to support the mental and physical health of employees and all those we work with.”

LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has said the “trashing” of Phillip Schofield over his secret affair has “more than a whiff of homophobia”.

The former Labour politician said the pair’s relationship had been “cast as sordid and abusive” and that such outrage was not caused by other high-profile heterosexual relationships.

In an interview with The Sun, published on Thursday, Schofield suggested that part of the backlash against him was due to homophobia.

In a statement Tatchell said the fallout was a “rank double standard”.

“The trashing of Philip Schofield has more than a whiff of homophobia. Anti-gay prejudice is explicit on social media and implicit in much of the national media,” he said.

“The age gap between Schofield and the young man is cast as sordid and abusive.”

Schofield told The Sun that he and his former lover had met when the man was 15 and he was “maybe” in his mid-50s, but added that the affair began after the man started working at ITV and had been “consensual”.

Lawyers representing Schofield and the man have confirmed these accounts.

“There was never such a massive hue and cry over relationships with much younger women by Leonardo Di Caprio, Al Pacino and Peter Stringfellow,” Tatchell said.

He also pointed out the 23-year age-difference between former prime minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Symonds, adding: “there was no fuss over their relationship or accusations that Johnson had abused his power position”.

“It’s rank double standards about Schofield’s same-sex relationship.”

In his statement Tatchell said that Schofield’s partner “was not a child” when they had begun their relationship and the man had made no complaint against him.

“Schofield has not committed a crime. He lied to his employer and work colleagues and that is wrong but it is not a criminal offence,” he said.

“It is a matter between Schofield and his fellow employees and bosses at ITV. It’s nobody else’s business.”

Tatchell’s words echo those of actor Rupert Everett, who said coverage of Schofield’s affair was “homophobic” and “outrageous” and should be “dropped” by the media.

Everett is voicing a new documentary on playwright, actor and director Noel Coward, who was a closeted homosexual at a time when it was illegal to be gay.

Speaking to Channel 4 about the fallout from Schofield’s affair, Everett said: “What’s he done? He’s married and has had an affair with someone that’s legal to have an affair with.

“Unless there’s something else that we haven’t heard about they should drop it.

“It’s outrageous, this kind of Puritan fascism that’s going on. If it’s just about him having an affair and lying to his agency – why can’t you lie to your agent?”

Everett said the affair was not the business of anyone but Schofield, not even his former sofa-mate Holly Willoughby.

It came after Piers Morgan questioned the “relentless persecution” of Schofield.

Morgan wrote on Twitter: “Unless Phillip Schofield’s ex-lover contradicts his version of events to The Sun [and the] BBC, then it’s time to stop this relentless persecution of a guy who’s lost everything and looks right on the edge to me.”

The former Good Morning Britain host continued: “He doesn’t seem to have committed any crime, and he’s not a [government] minister.”

Stand-in This Morning presenter Alison Hammond became emotional on This Morning after Phillip Schofield released an interview about his termination from ITV.

Separately, Schofield has said he did “everything he could” when his brother Timothy Schofield was being investigated for child sexual offences.

The former ITV presenter said he had worked “incredibly closely” with police throughout the investigation and still receives text messages from detectives who worked on the case.

Timothy Schofield, 54, was convicted in April of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019, including two of sexual activity with a child.

He was jailed in May for 12 years.

In an interview with The Sun amid the fallout from his affair he said his mother had been “heartbroken” by news of his brother, and recalled the investigation process.

“I was interviewed, I gave a full statement to the police, who we’ve worked with incredibly closely throughout,” he told The Sun.

“I still get texts from the investigating detective because we were so pleased with the result.

“We did everything we could at the right time.”

In a statement released by his lawyer after his brother’s guilty verdict, Schofield said: “My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family. I hope that their privacy will now be respected.

“If any crime had ever been confessed to me by my brother, I would have acted immediately to protect the victim and their family.

“These are despicable crimes and I welcome the guilty verdicts. As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.”

The former ITV presenter took a period of pre-planned leave around the trial at Exeter Crown Court, and accompanied his mother to Cornwall for the sentencing.

He told The Sun it was there that he received news that he would have to step down from This Morning.

“Our family thing was always to buy fish and chips and go and sit on the headland,” he said.

“I picked my mum up and she went in to get the fish and chips and while she was getting it my phone rang.

“It was my then manager, saying, ‘Mate, I’m so sorry, it has become too loud for ITV. You will have to step down from This Morning’.

“She said to me before I arrived, ‘You’re not coming down with any bad news are you?’

“She sat in the car and she was all happy to see me. Then she said, ‘Oh your face has changed’. I said, ‘Let’s go on to the headland’. And I had to tell her. She (was) devastated.”