Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

Amanda Barrie says Coronation Street bosses told her not to publicly come out as gay

Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie shockingly revealed that the soap's bosses stopped her from publicly coming out as gay.

The soap icon has played Alma Sedgewick on the ITV series for 20 years but wasn't allowed to be her true self.

While starring in the soap from 1981 to 1982 and 1988 to 2001, she refused to confirm her sexuality. It wasn't until after that she come out.

She made an appearance on Wednesday's episode of Loose Women with her wife Hilary Bonner and was asked what it was like being in the closet while on the show.

"There was no camp of any kind at that time," Amanda explained. {There was various people in charge of the show so, they call[ed] the tune. Do we call it homophobic? Call it what you like...

"What people did was they sold you to the press who thought 'there's a story there'."

She wasn't able to come out while she was on the show (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

"The press came and the very same people who would've done that would then say, 'I'm not going to work with someone who's gay'."

The 86-year-old said that all her co-stars were aware of her sexuality and that 'everyone knew I was gay!'

Discussing who she told, Amanda said: "Nobody at Coronation Street knew but my very close friends Helen [Worth], Sue Nicholls and Barbara Knox."

Amanda married her long-term partner Hilary at London's Drury Lane Theatre in 2014. They were together 10 years before they wed.

"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!’" the actress said.

"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!’"

She feared co-stars wouldn't want to work with her (Mirrorpix)
Amanda and Hilary on their wedding day (Mirrorpix)

Get all the biggest showbiz news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free Mirror Showbiz newsletter.

The star previously insisted that she would have been fired from Coronation Street if she had come out during the 1980s.

Speaking on the Conversation Street podcast, she said: “Every week I would come up to the office. They’d go, ‘You’re coming out.’ ‘Am I?’ ‘Yeah, they’ve got this thing on you.’

"I spent a fortune on solicitors because believe me if that had happened to me at that time they would not have kept me in Coronation Street and I will stand by that.

"Not because of them [the producers] but because of people, who shall be nameless, who would’ve said, ‘I’m not working with her.’"

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@trinitymirror.com or call us direct at 0207 29 33033.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.