Amanda Barrie says she came out as bisexual because she felt ‘dishonest’

By Lauren Del Fabbro, Press Association Entertainment Reporter

Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie has said she decided to come out as bisexual in her late 60s because she felt she was being “dishonest”.

The 90-year-old actress is best known for playing Alma Sedgewick on and off for 20 years, until 2001, on the ITV soap opera.

At the age of 67, she came out as bisexual in her 2002 autobiography It’s Not A Rehearsal: The Autobiography – and spoke about it on television for the first time on the chat show Richard And Judy, fronted by husband and wife Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.

The former Cobbles actress previously said she thought TV executives on the ITV soap would have “sacked” her if she came out while she was on the show.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, she said she decided to come out because she felt “so dishonest”.

She said: “I felt as if I was sort of cheating in some way, that although all my friends, family, anybody have always known what I was doing, which has been varied over the years, I give you that, but it felt that I couldn’t be honest.”

“When asked about the reaction after she came out, she said: “I thought that day when I came out I thought ‘I should be stoned in the street, people will actually refuse to put me in a taxi. I shall be barred from Tescos.’

“I don’t know what I thought. I just thought something ghastly would happen.”

Barrie, who has been married to novelist Hilary Bonner for nearly 10 years, said “absolutely nothing” happened after she came out and instead “got more of a hug than a stone thrown at me”.

Barrie is also known for starring in two of the famous 1960s Carry On films: Carry On Cabby and Carry On Cleo, and appeared in Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.