Clare Balding's secret fear that held her back from coming out as gay
The BBC’s new main Wimbledon host Clare Balding says she delayed coming out as gay because she feared it would impact her career.
The 52-year-old will take over anchoring the BBC tennis tournament’s coverage this summer, after Sue Barker stepped down last year.
It makes her among the most established broadcasters in the world but Clare, 52, once felt nervous about showing her true self publicly.
She said: “Being gay is who I am and it’s the way I’ve lived.
“The only reason it took me a while to come out publicly was not only because of the fear of the reaction, but that it might have a negative effect on my work. As it happens, that wasn’t the outcome, but at the time I didn’t know.
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“It’s a lot easier now.”
Clare decided to come out after a conversation with her wife (www.danielkennedy.com)
Clare is on the cover of new Woman & Home magazineSpeaking of her wife in a new interview, Clare added: “Alice says to me, if you think that your relationship or reality should be kept a secret, then you are perpetuating a state of shame.
“She helped me to see that. It’s one of the reasons we do Celebrity Gogglebox.
“We’ve been together 20 years – you don’t get to see that many same-sex couples who’ve been together that long sitting at home, watching the telly.”
Clare also told Woman & Home that attitudes have moved forward and more female presenters and pundits could appear on shows together these days.
And she said, so far, her fifties had been “pretty bloody terrific”.
On fronting Wimbledon, due July 3 -16, Clare said: “I’m very excited, but no one person could ever replace Sue.
“It’s just about having a brilliant team around you and getting the best out of them, and trying to make people feel like they are there with you.
“I just love the excitement of the first day of Wimbledon, when the gates open and people come streaming in.”
And Clare refuses to change her look to appear on TV.
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She said: “I wear a lot of trousers – I don’t tend to wear dresses or skirts. I’ll probably do the same at Wimbledon.
“Actually, Sue always wore trousers and she once told me it’s because if she was in a skirt you’d see her knees knocking. So even she got nervous!”
* The July issue of Woman & Home is on sale on Wednesday.
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