I said, ‘you don’t know what it’s been like’. “I eventually just turned around and said ‘Mum, I’m gay’. “We were just standing between the living room and the kitchen and Mum was busy cooking. I didn’t think I could continue not being honest with them. “I’d been living my gay life quite quietly away from the family home and I just got to the point where I needed to talk to my parents about my life.
“I asked, ‘does anybody else know?’ and she said, ‘no, I will go to the grave with this and you're to tell nobody.’'