Ex-Corrie star Amanda Barrie reveals she didn’t come out as gay in case she was fired in brutally honest Loose Women interview
The actress is married to writer Hilary Bonner
EX CORONATION Street star Amanda Barrie has revealed she didn't come out as gay in case she was fired, in a brutally honest Loose Women interview.
Amanda, who played Alma Sedgewick on the ITV soap for 20 years, admitted she was too frightened to reveal the truth about her sexuality in case she was sacked from the popular soap.
Speaking to panellists Andrea McLean, Kaye Adams, Katie Price and Nadia Sawalha, Amanda - who is happily married to writer Hilary Bonner, admitted she was terrified of the truth coming out at the height of her fame.
She said: "The trouble was with me that someone had tipped them [the paparazzi] off that I was...there was an interest in my sexuality shall we say.
"And I remember just being absolutely terrified because I knew at that time, I think I'm right to say, I would have lost my job.
"Not now but I honestly believed it that.
She said: "I was terrified, there was an attitude that certain people wouldn’t work with you, it was taboo."
Commenting on how attitudes have altered, she added: "Everything changes so quickly – in a wonderful way."
The 81-year-old, who tied the knot with writer Hilary Bonner in 2014, confessed only a few close friends on the long-running soap knew the truth.
Amanda explained: "Nobody at Coronation Street knew but my very close friends Helen [Worth], Sue Nicholls and Barbara Knox."
Amanda was with Hilary ten years before they wed at London's Drury Lane Theatre, but the Carry On favourite admits she wasn't at first very keen on the idea.
"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!’
She went on: "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."
Before coming out at the age of 67, Amanda was married to actor Robin Hunter.
They wed in 1967 when Amanda was 31, but separated in the 1980s.
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