Phillip Schofield has revealed that he took medication and saw a therapist while he was struggling to cope with the agony of being a closeted gay man.
Phillip, 58, announced via social media on February 7 that he had “been coming to terms with the fact” that he was gay.
in his new memoir, Life’s What You Make It, the dad-of-two speaks about the coping mechanisms he used before sitting down for an interview with co-host Holly Willoughby the day he came out.
Admitting that he knew he had to come out, he writes: “If not, the secret was going to give me a total breakdown… at best.
Phillip Schofield has admitted he turned to prescription pills whilst keeping his sexuality a secret (Image: ITV)
“My weight dropped and as it hit 9st 12lbs the This Morning viewers started to notice.
“I was getting tweets from people asking if I was ill.”
The TV star was struggling to sleep more than two hours each night and even turned to prescription pills to “take the edge off”.
Despite support from his family, friends and fans, Phillip admits in his book that his mental health is “still a work in progress”.
Phillip came out in February and did an interview on This Morning with Holly Willoughby (Image: S Meddle/ITV/REX)
The Dancing on Ice host still regularly speaks to his therapist about the guilt he feels over how his coming out affected his family – including his wife of 27 years Stephanie.
In the memoir, he says: “I’m finding it hard to pick my way through the debris.
“Is there a way to reveal a secret like this to the world and not hurt your wife or your family?”
Phillip is still speaking to a therapist as he deals with the guilt of hurting his family (Image: BBC)
Appearing on The One Show on Wednesday evening, Phillip praised his This Morning co-host Holly for conducting the sensitive interview with him in February.
“I couldn’t have done that with anyone else,” he told Michelle Acklerley and Michael Ball on the BBC show.
“I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else sitting beside me.”
Phillip’s new memoir Life’s What You Make It is out now (Image: handout)
He added: “We’d had a big lead up to that moment. When I knew what I had to do, Holly was one of the first people that I told.
“She’s such a wise person, she’s got such a calm, sensitive aura to her. Everyone at home was saying, ‘It’ll be ok, it’ll be ok’, and Holly was saying, ‘It’ll be fine’.
“She was the only one who knew at work at that time. Then we sort of had to figure out how to do something like that.”
● Life’s What You Make It by Phillip Schofield is out now (Penguin Books)
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
