Alan Bennett ‘didn’t see the point’ of coming out to his parents

Playwright Alan Bennett has said he never came out to his parents because he knew it would be difficult for them to accept.

Speaking to The Guardian this weekend, he added that not having a same-sex partner while they were alive made him reluctant to open up.

“It would have distressed both of them,” he said.

“People talk about coming out to their parents, and I just didn’t see the point of that.

“In my case, coming out about what? Nothing was happening – I might be gay, but I didn’t have a partner or anything, so there was no point.”

He’s now been in a relationship with Rupert Thomas for 23 years; prior to which he was with Anne Davies, who died in 2009.

He said of her: “[It] started off just as a fling, really, but we became very fond of each other.

“She overlapped with Rupert and so it ended, and then she came to Yorkshire and lived next door.

“To begin with, not surprisingly, she didn’t get on with Rupert, but then she became ill and she became closer to Rupert than she was to me, really.”

He’s currently promoting The Lady In The Van, a new movie based on his 1999 play of the same name.