Oscar-winner Joel Grey publicly came out as gay on Wednesday.
“I don’t like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I’m a gay man,” Joel told People.
It took the 82-year-old a long time to accept his sexuality and to muster up the courage to come out, he told the magazine.
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“All the people close to me have known for years who I am,” Joel confided. “[Yet] it took time to embrace that other part of who I always was.”
Joel told People he had a happy 24-year marriage to actress Jo Wilder that spawned two children – actress Jennifer Grey and son James.
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Jennifer told the magazine she is supportive of her father’s decision to go public with his news.
“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,” Jennifer said. “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.”
— Paige Feigenbaum
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