Graham Norton said he didn’t want to be gay growing up in Ireland
The BBC TV and radio presenter has opened up about his sexuality
By Steve Brown
Graham Norton has said he didn’t want to be gay when he was growing up.
It’s hard not to think as Norton as being anything other than the openly gay BBC presenter, but there was a time when the eight-time BAFTA winning chat show host wished he wasn’t.
While speaking on This Morning on Tuesday (October 9), Norton confessed when growing up, he wasn’t sure of is sexual orientation.
He said: “There were gay bars in Dublin and Cork but I didn’t know. And I also wasn’t sure that I was [gay].
“Those realisations come to you suddenly, because you don’t want to be. So you’re kind of thinking, ‘Oh, maybe I’m not’.”
Norton’s comments come just weeks after he revealed that he could have been found dead in a ditch had he come out while living in Ireland.
He said: “Ireland’s a great one for ignoring problems. There were no gay people, so you couldn’t be homophobic.
“It’s like there was no racism because there was no other race. We had to hate Catholic and Protestants because there was no one else to hate!
“If I had come out, it would have been more than difficult. I may have been dead in a ditch.”