'He fell on his knees crying and told me "I'm gay"': Eamonn Holmes recalls how ... trends now

Eamonn Holmes has recalled the extraordinary moment Phillip Schofield fell 'down on his knees crying' and revealed he was gay just minutes before the star came out live on air.

Holmes blasted Schofield and his co-presenter of 14 years Holly Willoughby claiming the pair had 'choreographed' and 'rehearsed' the dramatic and sudden announcement that shocked viewers in 2020.

Now speaking days after revelations that Schofield had lied about his relationship with a much younger male colleague, the veteran presenter, 63, said he feels 'used'.

Holmes and his wife Ruth Langsford, who used to co-present This Morning on Fridays, had not been told by ITV bosses why Schofield would be sitting on the sofa with them that day, claiming ITV bosses simply said the former presenter 'had something today'.

He told his fellow GB News presenter Dan Wootton tonight that the reason was only revealed when Schofield came into the pair's dressing room and '[fell] down on his knees' that he announced, 'I'm gay'.

At the time Holmes said he and his wife were 'very, very supportive' of Schofield, comforting him by hugging him and telling him 'we'll stand by you'.

Holmes has now claimed that the announcement by the now fallen presenter was made as part of a 'cover up' for what the former presenter, who stepped down from his role at ITV two weeks, called an 'unwise, but not illegal'.

He said: 'We were lied to. And Ruth and I to this day are embarrassed and ashamed when we see those pictures, when we see the toils that some people who are tortured by their sexuality have to go through and this was a cover up for something else.'

'We feel angry, we feel angry about that, we feel used,' he added.

It comes as former ITV producer Christo Foufas, who is now a presenter at TalkTV, reported that the young man had been removed off This Morning after 'declaring his love for Phil' at the National Television Awards in January 2020.

He said that the young man was then shunted to another programme on the daytime network.

Just ten days later Schofield wrote an emotional Instagram post revealing he was gay, moments before making the announcement live on air with Holmes, Langsford and Willoughby.

The series of allegations from Holmes come as the Daily Mail was told that the young man had been given a payment following the end of his on-off relationship with Schofield.

ITV have repeatedly declined to comment on the alleged settlement or deny it. No comment were also made by representatives of the presenter.

Insiders at the broadcaster said that bosses at some level must have known about any payment as a senior member of staff would have had to sign it off.

One source said: 'There have been numerous pay-offs at ITV and they have always had to be arranged and sanctioned by people of some seniority.’

The claims add to a number of calls

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