Emmerdale’s Max Parker shares high-key relatable coming out story and reveals how he made first move with boyfriend Kris Mochrie
Emmerdale stars Max Parker (L) and Kris Mochrie (R). (Instagram)
Emmerdale star Max Parker opened up about his coming out journey and how he slid into boyfriend and Emmerdale co-star Kris Mochrie’s DMs on their last day of filming.
Chatting to Attitude magazine, the 29-year-old actor explained that he first came out as bisexual aged 18 to a small circle of friends.
Soon after, he began dating a woman who he would end up being in a relationship with for seven years.
The pressure to propose and have children proved too much for Parker.
“One of the main reasons why we did split in the end was because I knew that she’s a beautiful girl and she could basically be with anyone she wants, and I was stopping her from [doing] that,” he said.
“When you get to a certain age and people say, ‘You’ve been together for this long, are you going to propose, have kids?’ all those kinds of questions, it makes you think: ‘Am I doing the right thing by not pursuing this thing that I’ve had in the back of my mind?’.”
A year later, he realised he was not attracted to more than one gender.
“Something in my mind just changed… I feel comfortable now knowing that I am gay.”
He later came out to his parents after they asked if he was dating anybody, and picked up on his use of gender-neutral pronouns.
“My dad was just like, ‘Oh, is that because it’s a guy?’ and I said, ‘Yeah’, and I just remember he put down his wine and gave me a hug. And then my mum was like, ‘Show us him, then!’”
Max Parker first met Kris Mochrie on his final day of filming.
In 2019, Parker was cast on Emmerdale as Luke Posner, where he first met now-boyfriend Kris Mochrie, who played his on-screen brother.
The actor revealed he didn’t make a move until after Mochrie’s last day on set, when he matched with him on Tinder.
“He was filming his last day on set,” he said, “that was the first time we met. I didn’t know he was gay, but I remember thinking he’s very handsome.
“It was later I thought, ‘I’ve never done Tinder, so I’ll have a go’, so I went on Tinder and I saw him pop up, and I was like, ‘OK this is a sign’ – so I made the first move by sending a message on Instagram.”
Kris Mochrie hiked and then later stripped off in front of Emmerdale castmate Max Parker. (Instagram)
They soon began sharing photographs of themselves on social media, leading to reports on their relationships in newspapers – including one his grandparents read. At the time, he wasn’t out to them.
“There was literally a page of Kylie Minogue, Kim Kardashian and me and Kris on the same page,” Parker recalled.
“I don’t know what newspaper it was, but I knew my grandparents read it, so I was like, ‘I’m gonna have to tell them’.”
“I never didn’t want people to know I was gay, I just didn’t want it to be an awkward situation, mainly because my grandparents didn’t know and I didn’t want it to come out and for them to find out [that way].”
“Which is why I’m quite upset in the way it came out – because it wasn’t my narrative, it wasn’t me saying ‘by the way guys, I am dating this person’.”
Now, the couple are reportedly living together, Parker having recently shared an Instagram story showing off his “new home” that Mochrie reposted.
