Sir Derek Jacobi: My mother said my sexuality was a phase
Veteran actor Sir Derek Jacobi has spoken about coming out to his parents.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Sir Derek said he come out to his mother when he was at university: “She said, ‘All young men, go through this phase, don’t worry.’
“I remember saying, ‘Don’t tell Dad.’
” think she did, but I don’t know.
“But they were wonderful, my parents, not much was said but they kind of knew, they got it.”
“I wasn’t open. I just lived my life and people responded to me.
“If they knew, or thought, I was gay, that was fine. If they didn’t, that was fine.
“I’ve never been on a Gay Pride march. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel as strongly about it, I just don’t talk about it.”
He also spoke about his partner Richard Clifford who he has been with for nearly 40 years, and in a civil partnership with since 2006. “ I don’t know. It is a long time, isn’t it? There’s a certain amount of work, but there’s luck too.”
In 2012, Sir Derek described the fight for equal marriage as a “squabble over nothing” and said of his relationship: “We’ve been in a civil partnership for five years. It doesn’t matter what you call it.
“We don’t think of it as marriage, it’s a partnership.”
