Schofield: My weight plunged over the stress of coming out
HE has spoken candidly about the stress of coming to terms with his sexuality.
Now Phillip Schofield has told how he lost over a stone as he wrestled with the decision to come out as gay.
His new autobiography reveals the drop came on top of another stone he had shed through dieting and his weight eventually plummeted to 9st 12lb.
Schofield, 58 – who has been married to Stephanie Lowe, 56, since 1993 – publicly announced he was gay in an Instagram post before appearing on This Morning in February this year. In his book, he wrote: ‘A few years ago, Steph and I had a wonderful holiday in the Hamptons. We’d had our picture taken and when I saw it, I was horrified by how chunky I looked.
‘I was probably over 12st. I put myself on the 5:2 diet and it worked, so much so that my weight dropped to just under 11st and ITV asked the office if I was okay. I decided that 11st was as far as I should go.’
But when he was struggling with his sexuality, he was in ‘such a state of turmoil’ that he had no interest in food and his weight hit 9st 12lb – a loss of just over 2st. He wrote: ‘I was getting tweets asking if I was ill, or saying that if I was on a diet I should stop.
‘Would coming out save me? Would it fix what was wrong in my head?’
Schofield also revealed his mother Pat, 84, was relieved when he came out – as she thought his decline in mood was because he was going blind. He wrote: ‘I told her. She looked at me and said: “Oh.” There was a big pause and she said: “I wasn’t expecting that. I thought you were going blind.”
‘Blind?! Why the hell would you think I was going blind?’ He said she had worried that he had complained of ‘eye floaters’.
In the book, Schofield also addressed his ‘incredible’ friendship with co-presenter Holly Willoughby – and in particular the support she showed him when he told her he was gay. He said: ‘I asked her to come into my dressing room and I told her everything. I knew she would be incredible. After I had confided in her, I opened my dressing room door.
‘On the floor outside was a pristine white feather. She picked it up and gave it to me. “See,” she said. “It’s all going to be okay.” The feather is in my wallet.’
In Life’s What You Make It, Schofield also denied rumours he was forced into coming out, writing: ‘I had to come out. If I didn’t the secret was going to give me a breakdown.’