Podcast Corner: Louise McSharry discusses coming out as gay on her latest episode
Louise McSharry's latest podcast features a discussion about her coming out as gay in her 40s. Picture Brian McEvoy
‘Parasocial’ is the word of the year, according to Cambridge Dictionary, who pointed to a connection people feel with someone they don’t know or - how very 2025 - with AI. As an example, it points to Lily Allen and the storm of attention that greeted her latest album about the breakup of her marriage. It sparked a “parasocial interest in her love life”, says Cambridge Dictionary.
On Friday’s episode of where the host is interviewed by the journalist Una Mullally, she cites Lily Allen as an influence on making a big life decision recently.
“I suppose being a grown up and having a family means you don't get to just do selfish things,” says McSharry. “Obviously there's no parallels between my situation and Lily's situation, but I read a million interviews with her, and in one of them, she was talking about why it was important for her to say these things out loud and to put her story out into the world.
"And she was talking about the fact that she'd always just felt like until she had said things out loud and put things out into the world, they didn't feel done, or she didn't feel like she could move on. And I have never heard anyone articulate that before, and that is genuinely how I have always felt.”
The episode is a powerful 80-minute listen in which McSharry discusses her journey of self-discovery and coming out as gay in her 40s. She recounts her therapy sessions, the emotional process of telling her husband, and the subsequent impact on their family life.
“I've never really struggled with being open and honest about challenges,” she says. “I think it's really useful to talk about the challenges that we all face. I think we gain so much from that conversation. And also, for me personally, for some reason, externalising things is a huge part of my own process of moving on and healing, I suppose.”
As Lily Allen helped McSharry, so McSharry may help countless others. Casual listeners will hear a conversation about identity and change, while more devout fans will feel the emotional weight of it differently.
Podcasts are perhaps the definition of parasocial - we listen to familiar voices for hours every week over however many years. We become used to hosts’ quirks, personalities, and life journeys. We cry when they reveal a setback or cheer at a win, no matter how big or small. McSharry's willingness to use her platform to help others is, paradoxically, what deepens that final, defining closeness between host and audience.
