Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has revealed he felt “completely homophobic” when he was younger.
The judge admitted that, following intense bullying from schoolmates about his love for the performing arts, he felt “traumatised”.
Craig has been openly gay after leaving his wife of two years Jane to be with a man in 1992.
READ MORE: Strictly’s Krishnan Guru-Murphy got blunt three-word order from BBC pro partner
Since his official coming out, he has consistently spoken out in favour of queer rights and routinely praised for having a hand in bringing same-sex partners to the BBC ballroom show.
(Image: PA)
But Craig was not always comfortable with his sexuality, having been ashamed for his love for the performing arts – which were not seen as manly.
The Aussie-born dancer and choreographer said that he was branded a “pansy” and “poofter” by classmates, in an interview with The Guardian.
“Even me just doing home economics instead of woodwork was frowned on because I was quite effeminate – not that I knew I was, but I liked the recorder and I hated sport,” he confessed.
Craig revealed that the awful bullying he faced left him “completely homophobic”, and admitted it was not until he got to embrace the theatre world when he could tackle his self-hatred.
(Image: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
He praised the people who worked in the industry as they were able to help him accept who he was.
“They were older and accepting, and I loved it. I liked those people, and I knew I didn’t like people at school. I was traumatised at school, but dance released that,” he explained.
Speaking ahead of the first same-sex partnering in 2017, Horwood said: “You only have to decide who’s going to go backwards.
“In the world of competitions, there are same sex couples that do it as well so there is no reason that can’t happen. The Beeb just have to decide if it’s something they want to do”.
(Image: BBC/Ray Burmiston)
Horwood also confessed that he had started to develop an eating disorder after he was picked on by his classmates for his looks.
He said that classmates believed he had been wearing mascara, when he just had long eyelashes. But despite his protests, he was bullied relentlessly.
“They’d block the corridors and push me about. They wouldn’t let me get to my lock. It was really bad,” he added.
For more of the latest showbiz and TV news from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
