Clare Balding says her grandmother told her she was ‘disgusting’ for being a lesbian
Sports broadcaster Clare Balding has revealed her grandmother told her she was “disgusting” after finding out she was a lesbian.
Ms Balding, 42, spoke about her coming out experience in recent a BBC Radio 4 interview.
The now OBE-award winning gay icon, who placed second on this year’s Pink List, was publicly outed in a newspaper 10 years ago.
She told Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young that although her parents already knew she was gay beforehand, she and her grandmother did not speak for months following the revelation.
“I said ‘Grandma, I need to talk to you’ and she said ‘Yes I should think you do’.
“I said ‘Have you seen the paper?’ and she said ‘Yes and I think it’s disgusting’.
“I said ‘What do you mean? The invasion of my privacy or my lifestyle choice’ and she said ‘Both’ and I didn’t talk to her for about six months after that which was pretty difficult.”
Ms Balding was also asked whether she could work with a “clear conscience” at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, given Russia’s notoriety following anti-gay legislation.
She said: “Absolutely. Because I think it’s hugely important that I do go”.
The journalist and writer commented on revelations that scores of schools in England and Wales had polices in place targeting the “promotion” of homosexuality, in language reminiscent of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988.
