British-born Queer Eye star Tan France says he was more excited to meet Phillip Schofield than Hollywood stars such as Meryl Streep.
The fashion designer, originally from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, recalled being starstruck by the TV presenter during an appearance on This Morning.
France, 37, described Schofield, 58, who came out as gay in February 2020, as “an icon” and said he “geeked out” when they met.
Appearing on Laura Whitmore’s Castaway podcast, he said: “I went on This Morning last year, or the year before if I remember, and we’d already done mega things in America at that point and I was kind of calm about it.
“I wasn’t as obsessed as I was about the stars as I was with British stars, so I went and I met Phillip Schofield and I geeked out so hard.
“And he found it really weird. He was like, ‘Tan, we’re about to post pictures on the show of who you hung out with at the Emmys and you’re getting really excited, it’s just This Morning’.
“I was like, ‘You are an icon to me, I watched you since I was a baby, your Gordon the Gopher blew my mind’.
“So yeah, when you see these people that you knew when you were a kid, they’re often more exciting to you than a Meryl Streep, truly.”
Schofield made his name alongside sidekick Gordon The Gopher on BBC Children’s TV.
He married wife Stephanie in Scotland in 1993 and the couple have two grown-up daughters, Ruby and Molly.
Laura Whitmore’s Castaway podcast is available on all major podcast platforms.