Gareth Thomas has spoken out on the current controversy surrounding Phillip Schofield, who stepped down from This Morning last month and has since admitted to having an affair with a much younger male colleague on the show.
The Welsh former rugby Captain, 48, worked closely with the shamed presenter while appearing on Dancing On Ice in 2013 and has given his opinion on Phillip's claims that he is facing homophobia.
In his bombshell BBC interview last week, Phillip claimed that the scrutiny he was facing for his affair could be down to homophobia – sharing his thoughts that there would be less backlash if the affair had been with a woman.
"Attraction is attraction. It's no different in the gay world as it is in the heterosexual world or in the lesbian world," explained Phillip, who came out as gay in 2020.
Following suit of the likes of actor Rupert Everett – who recently slammed the coverage of Phillip's affair – Gareth has said 'there is an argument' that he is being treated differently because of his sexuality.
"It's interesting. You do wonder if it would be different, and if you're wondering that then the reality is it probably would be.
"But around this whole saga, the one thing I've tried to deal with is the facts and that's what it makes it very difficult to have an opinion on it, because the facts just aren't there at the moment," said Gareth to Wales Online.
"There's a lot of 'he said, she said' around it, a lot of conspiracy theories and intrusion as there always is. So I'm trying to make conscious decisions now on facts, which is a struggle in the society that we live in because everybody is a journalist now."
He added: "I do think that when it comes to that claim that he made, there can be an argument for it. The fact that we're questioning it and the fact that we potentially feel it could be [homophobic] I think says a lot about discriminative nature and how the marginalised characteristic of a person opens them up to discrimination and stereotypes that other people hold".
Gareth was met with national praise when he bravely announced that he is HIV positive in 2019, 10 years after coming out as the first openly gay rugby player.
Speaking exclusively to OK! magazine at the time, Gareth revealed how he faced some of his darkest days after a tabloid threatened to blackmail him and report his HIV status. He later chose to take control ad publicly disclose it himself, as well as film a documentary about his journey.
Gareth told us: “I’d try to hide how was I feeling because I didn’t want it to impact on my family and friends. But it becomes impossible when you start having panic attacks and you want to cry constantly. I have learned a lot about vulnerability and inner strength from Stephen [husband Stephen Williams-Thomas].”
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