Piers Morgan says Phillip Schofield showed “extraordinary guts” by coming out as gay on television.
The Good Morning Britain presenter, 54, said he had never suspected Phillip fancied men in their 30 years of friendship.
Piers said: “I was pretty surprised. It takes pretty extraordinary guts to say on television, it must have been a tough experience.”
Piers also said TV welcomed people of all sexual orientations, but with Phillip being married with daughters, being gay “is not an easy thing for a man to admit”.
He said he had messaged the star, 57, to say handled it with “enormous grace” and can “stop worrying”.
He added he had found Phillip’s admission on This Morning “very moving”.
The controversial host also discussed Phillip coming out as gay during his Oscars coverage with Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain.
Phillip came out as gay on Friday in an Instagram post, and then did an interview with Holly Willoughby on This Morning discussing his sexuality, along with his 27-year marriage to a woman, with whom he has two daughters.
Piers questioned why Phil even needed to come out as gay in this day and age, claiming he believed we lived in a tolerant enough society that it did not need to be a topic of discussion.
In 1992, Piers wrote a book about Phillip called To Dream a Dream: Amazing Life of Phillip Schofield, and he joked that he "missed the story" by not realising Phillip was gay.
He discussed the topic with Sharon and Kelly Osbourne, showbiz blogger Perez Hilton, and actress Dame Joan Collins.
Sharon said she thought Phillip was brave to have come out publicly, as "the secret would have probably ended up killing him".
