I’m pretty sure that if Phillip Schofield had met a girl when she was 10, had ‘private meals’ with her when she was 12 – 14, and ended up cheating on his wife with her once she was of age, he’d be dealing with a similar level of backlash and fallout as he is now in his current situation.

Sir Elton John doesn’t think so, though. He reckons that the treatment of Phillip Schofield has been ‘homophobic’ and that it wouldn’t have been much of a news story if Schofield was straight.

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.”

I mean, there’s just no way that’s true. The reason Schofield has been criticised so badly is not just because he was an adult in power ‘grooming’ a young person, but also the deceit around the whole thing where he lied to everyone about it for ages, including his own wife and kids. He tried to silence the story through the courts, and now it seems like he’s only sorry because he got caught and lost his TV career.

Still, maybe we should just leave Phillip Schofield alone now. His career is finished and as long as he didn’t do anything illegal like his brother, then we may as well move on from the story.

Plenty of time to start taking the p*ss again when he turns up on I’m A Celebrity in a year or two…