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Former Strictly star comes out at 50 and opens up about parents’ reaction

Colin Jackson’s parents, we think we love you

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It’s not often that we write about Colin Jackson at Entertainment Daily – he’s not generally out on the celeb circuit and/ or in EastEnders – but today we’re making an exception, because the athlete has just come out on Swedish TV.

Former super-athlete and Olympian and BBC commentator Colin is 50, and said he’d finally revealed all because he liked the tone of STV’s interview, which he featured in on a slot called Rainbow Heroes, and for the simple reason that ‘you asked’.

“The way you asked me, it was a whole storytelling kind of thing and you were just interested in the way it affected me sports-wise, emotionally-wise and my preparation,” he said.

He then went on to detail how he’d come out to his parents, Angela and Berris.

“I was waiting for them in the kitchen. They walked in and they sat down. My mother could see my face and I was quite distraught,” he said.

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“It didn’t faze them at all.”

Colin then explained that he came out to his family because a former partner – an airline steward – had sold a story on him.

The story was featured in the News Of The World in 2006, after Colin had been a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing.

“My mum went: ‘First of all, is the story true?’

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“And I said ‘It’s true, so it’s not like I can deny it’. And then she went: ‘Well, why are people so disgraceful?’

“I just realised, I’ve got the best parents.”

But while Colin came out to his parents, he at the time denied that he was gay.

He explained that he had wanted to avoid it being ‘sensationalised.’

Now it seems he’s happy to be honest – even retweeting a recent post from Cardiff Pride.

Consider our hearts warmed, right there.


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor