Joel Grey, 82-Year-Old Oscar Winner, Comes Out As Gay

Joel Grey, 82-year-old Hollywood star who won an Oscar for his performance alongside Liza Minelli in Cabaret, has just come out as gay, according to the Independent.

“I don’t like labels,” Grey told People magazine, “but if you have to put a label on it, I’m a gay man.”

His sexuality was not a secret to his friends or family, but this is the first time the stage and theatre actor has been prepared to discuss it publicly.
“All the people close to me have known for years who I am,” Grey added. “It took time to embrace that other part of who I always was.”
He eventually left Ohio to attend college in Los Angeles.

Like many people, Grey has been attracted to both men and women. He said: “I came to realise, along with being attracted to girls, I had similar feelings for boys.”

He was married to actress Jo Wilder, with whom he has two children. Talking about his 24-year marriage, he described it as the “happiest [time] of my life”.

His daughter, Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey, told People: “I feel very happy for my dad that he has come to a point in his life where he feels safe and comfortable enough to declare himself in a public way as a gay man.”

She added: “Mostly because the more people are free to own their true nature and can hopefully come closer to love and accept themselves as they really are, no matter what age, no matter how long it takes, to finally be free of the lies or half truths, it is freedom.”