Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie revealed she wasn’t able to come out while she was still starring on the ITV soap.
The actress announced the news on Loose Women explaining she was on the soap for 20 years but was unable to come out publicly.
Amanda played Alma Sedgewick on the programme and told the Loose Women panel the news on Wednesday.
The 86-year-old star previously refused to confirm her sexuality and came out later in life as bisexual.
The star had also previously insisted that she would have been fired if she came out during the 1980s.
Amanda appeared on Loose Women beside her wife, writer Hilary Bonner, and shared a sweet kiss on-screen.
(Image: Getty Images)
The star said: “There was no camp of any kind at that time.
“There was various people in charge of the show so, they call[ed] the tune. Do we call it homophobic? Call it what you like…”
“What people did was they sold you to the press who thought ‘there’s a story there’.
“The press came and the very same people who would’ve done that would then say, ‘I’m not going to work with someone who’s gay.'”
(Image: Collect Unknown)
The TV star tied the knot with Hilary back in 2014 and she admitted that only a few close friends on the show knew the truth.
She explained: “Nobody at Coronation Street knew but my very close friends Helen [Worth], Sue Nicholls and Barbara Knox.”
“I’d been with Hilary for years and we didn’t want to get married before. I kept going, ‘Oh my God, I can’t bear one of those receptions. Ugh!’”
(Image: PA)
She continued: “Then when I did pantomime I asked my Dandini [Cinderella’s sidekick] where he got married and he said Drury Lane Theatre. And I went, ‘Hilary! That’s it, we’re doing it!’
“It’s my favourite theatre – the first place I went when I arrived in London at 13. I said my prayer on Drury Lane steps, ‘Please can I be in the theatre?’
“I’ve never played there except a charity show, although that was my ambition. So we married there instead.”
Daily Star has approached Coronation Street representatives for comment.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
