Coronation Street legend Shobna Gulati has revealed they are non-binary in a candid interview about their gender identity.
The 58-year-old actor, best known for playing Sunita in the ITV soap, said they've only recently found the vocabulary to describe how they've always felt.
"I've become more happy describing myself as a person. What do people call it now? Non-binary. So, I suppose that's who I am," they told Kaye Adams on the How To Be 60 podcast.
"I've never had a word for it, but I've learnt from our younger generation what that might look like in terms of a word, because I know what it feels like in terms of being me."
The star, who lists their pronouns as "she/they" on Instagram, also shared they are currently in love but would be happy to date men or women in the future.
Gulati explained: "All the way through my life, I've never had the words for that, and I've never managed to explain that. I suppose my immediate family have not really thought about it.
"They've just thought: 'Shobna is either extremely feminine or extremely masculine.'"
The actor, who also starred in BBC comedy Dinnerladies as Anita, revealed they learned about non-binary identity from a colleague.
"The sound person said to me that they were non-binary and I said, 'What is that?' So, then they explained and I thought – 'Well, I feel like that, but I didn't ever have that vocabulary.'"
Gulati was made an MBE last year for services to the cultural industries.
