Dr Kildare star: I'm gay

Dr Kildare star Richard Chamberlain spoke for the first time today about being gay.

The actor said that at the age of 69 he felt it was the right time to come out.

He told US network NBC that when he was growing up being homosexual or a “sissy” was socially unacceptable.

“I disliked and feared this part of myself intensely and had to hide it and became ’Perfect Richard, All American Boy’ as a place to hide.

“I’m not a romantic leading man any more so I don’t need to nurture that public image.”

Chamberlain also spoke of his love for his partner, a producer and director with whom he lives in Hawaii.

“I love my life just the way it is. I’m proud of my relationship. I’m actually proud of myself.”

Chamberlain shot to fame as a heartthrob surgeon in the hit TV series Dr Kildare, which ran from 1961 to 1966.

In the Eighties he appeared in TV mini-series the Thorn Birds as a priest torn between the church and his love of a woman.

His coming out coincides with the release of his autobiography, Shattered Love.