Daily Express

I WORRY THAT PHIL’S WIFE WILL BE LEFT TO PICK UP THE PIECES

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AFTER 27 years of marriage to wife Steph, Phillip Schofield has publicly admitted he’s gay. It’s something many in the showbiz world have known or suspected for a long time. Schofield says it’s something his wife has known about for a while and she has been incredibly supportive. “So now I’m ready to celebrate and be proud of my sexuality,” he says.

And I’m happy for him. Truly. I can’t imagine how awful it must be to live a lie and suppress the biggest part of who you are, especially if you’re a household name living in fear of being “exposed”. However, while Schofield is now free to embark on his new life-enhancing journey I wonder how his wife Steph is REALLY handling it. Can she really be as happy, as supportive and as “on board with it” as he’s claiming? Unless she’s known about this for years she must have been to hell and back. Of course families can eventually work through any situation but I fear Phil is painting too rosy a picture here. So many things are about to change – the biggest being when he starts openly having relationsh­ips with men.

But unless that’s already happened and Steph, long ago, knew about her husband’s sexuality and made a conscious decision to live with it – I cannot imagine she’s anywhere near ready for that.

Phil says he’s being, “smothered with love and kindness” by his family.Well, I just hope someone’s smothering Steph with love and kindness. Because while her husband takes the first steps into his new world, being hugged and congratula­ted for his honesty and courage, Steph will be left to pick up the pieces of their old one.

I suspect it will be a lonely place to be.

INGRID Newkirk, the President of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) says we should stop calling our animals “pets” because it’s patronisin­g.

Murphy, the devil dog, is now 13 months old and I’m pretty sure that when he’s taking pole position in our bed, being shampooed and groomed

(for which I pay double the going rate because he’s such a handful), being fed the special (very expensive food) he has for doggy IBS (yes it’s a thing) and being played with for hours on end – he doesn’t feel patronised.

The Husband and I call him Murphy The Money Pit which I suppose bonkers Ms Newkirk would class as patronisin­g.

Neverthele­ss it IS a fact!

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