PHILLIP Schofield has told how he will now be eternally mocked for the Queuegate scandal even though he warned to producers it was a mistake.
He and Holly received a huge backlash after claims the pair “queue jumped” to see the late Queen lying in state last September.
Holly later did an on-air apology as thousands of memes flooded the internet mocking the pair.
But despite the furore over claims they jumped the queue to see the Queen lying in state last year, it was actually the conviction of his disgraced brother Timothy – which drove them apart.
He said: “So we are forever now (associated)… it doesn’t matter now because I’m not going to go out any more … but forever now, you go to the butchers and someone says, ‘Oh do you want to (skip ahead)…?’ ‘No, no, I’ll stand here.’ I’m serious.
“I don’t ever throw anyone under the bus, but I have a very good instinct for these things and I knew it was a bad thing to do.
“But there is no reason that the justification that was given to me, shouldn’t have been true.
“You are journalists, loosely, and you are covering a massive story. Therefore I want you to cover it. As indeed, 700 other journalists did exactly the same thing.
“There was no jumping of the queue. We went and spoke to everyone in the queue. We went out and met everyone in the queue then walked all the way around the building, and went into the press centre with your accreditation.
“That got messed up because the production team didn’t want to give either of our emails out, so they used work emails which obviously didn’t match up with who we are.”
Of the photographs of the pair which quickly went viral – Holly in a covid face mask and somber Phil with a face of thunder – he adds: “My face (says it all) – ‘we shouldn’t be here’.
“It didn’t feel right. What was sad was it wrecked what I wanted to do on the day. I wanted to go and stand at the end of my road and watch her go past as she went down to Windsor.
“Within seconds there was the photo of the two of us. Why us? Why not all of the other people? Why single us out?
”Because you’re Holly and Phil, I suggest?
“Not any more”, he deadpans back.
He continues: “We were texting each other backwards and forwards afterwards. I said to Holly, ‘I knew I should have gone with my gut,’ and she said, ‘I know’.“
But we were shell-shocked, the both of us, completely shell-shocked by the reaction.
“What are the two things you don’t screw up? The Queen and a queue”
