We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.
This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield, 58, has opened up about his personal life, career and health in his new autobiography Life’s What You Make It. As part of his book, he shared details about suffering with floaters in his eyes as well as coming out as gay. Recalling the moment he opened up to his mum Pat about being gay, the host said she feared he was going to tell her he was going blind.
I said ‘What the hell do you mean? Why do you think I’m going blind?
Phillip Schofield
“She knew I was coming and she knew something was up,” he revealed to Chris Evans on his Virgin Radio Breakfast show.
“I have floaters in my eyes which drive me crazy.
“I don’t talk about them very much… it’s like a filthy bathroom window drifting in front of my vision.
“So we had our fish and chips and I said, ‘Mum, I have something to tell you’ and she said, ‘Okay, alright’ and I said ‘I’m gay’.
“And she went, ‘Oh thank god, I thought you were going blind’!”
Confused by her response, the presenter recalled: “I said ‘What the hell do you mean? Why do you think I’m going blind?’
“She said, ‘Those things you’ve got in your eyes and I know you’ve been very sad recently’ and I said ‘No mum, no. No I’m not going blind’.”
The host went on to say others feared he was unwell ahead of his announcement due to his noticeable weight loss.
In response to him coming out as gay, Phillip previously said his mum replied: “‘Oh ok, well I don’t care’.”
He laughed as he recalled his mum’s simple but loving response to something he had struggled to come to terms with for decades, during his chat with Holly Willoughby on This Morning.
Phillip publicly came out as gay back in February in an emotional statement on Instagram.
He later spoke out about his feelings on the ITV alongside his co-host Holly.
Phillip has been married to his long-term with Stephanie Lowe for 27 years and they share two daughters together.
During a recent episode of This Morning, the host spoke out about how the floaters in his eyes had affected him.
Speaking to the show’s Dr Sara, he asked for advice and revealed he is desperate to undergo an operation.
Phillip explained his eye retinas “are not detaching” but he would like the health issue resolved.
The doctor said that if this was the case, it would be considered a “medical emergency”.
The host went on to say he had been researching into surgery which currently only exists in the United States.
Phillip added he “hoped to be the first person in the UK” to undergo the eye operation.
“Well, my retinas are not detaching, but I have debilitating eye floaters,” he continued.
Sharing further details, he added: “I am at the cutting edge of all this, let me tell you, because the only way to treat them is a vitrectomy, where they suck the jelly out of your eye.
“Within 12 months you get a cataract, so they are trying to pioneer a half vitrectomy, which started in America – see I know a lot about this!
“You have half the vitrectomy, take the floaters out, but you don’t get a cataract.
“My vision is like a filthy bathroom window drifting across my eyes, and it drives me crazy.”
Source: Read Full Article