Sir Elton John has branded the reaction to Phillip Schofield’s affair with a younger This Morning colleague “totally homophobic”.
Phillip resigned from ITV last month with immediate effect and was dropped by his talent agency YMU, after admitting to having lied about the relationship, which he described at the time as “unwise but not illegal”.
While the scandal dominated news headlines for weeks, legendary singer Sir Elton has admitted that he thinks much of the public response to the news was rooted in homophobia.
The I’m Still Standing singer shared his thoughts in a new interview with Radio Times, in which he also discussed the rights of LGBTQ+ people living in the United States.
“It’s all going pear-shaped in America,” he began. “There’s violence, (discriminatory) laws enacted in Florida, which are disgraceful. 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.
“We seem to be going backwards. And that spreads. It’s like a virus that the LGBTQ+ movement is suffering.”
Sir Elton, who is preparing to close Glastonbury Festival this weekend, added: “I don’t like it at all. It’s a growing swell of anger and homophobia that’s around America.
“I don’t know if it’s around Britain because I haven’t been here that much. But 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 claimed.
Earlier this month, Phillip made similar remarks while addressing the fall-out from his affair in an interview with the BBC’s Amol Rajan.
“I fully appreciate there is a massive age gap, but that happens in life,” he said.
“I think there is an enormous amount of homophobia that [the affair] happens to be male, but if it was male-female then it wouldn’t be such a scandal.”
Speaking to The Sun, he added: “There’s [an age] difference. It’s accepted [if it’s] Leonardo DiCaprio [dating younger women], it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world.
“People are attracted to or have relationships – wise or unwise – with people of different ages.”