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Broadway legend and Oscar-winning star of Cabaret Joel Grey has come out as gay.
In an interview with People, the 82-year-old revealed: "I don't like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I'm a gay man."
During his childhood in Cleveland, Grey said he "came to realize, along with being attracted to girls, I had similar feelings for boys." But the actor remained closeted for years, partially due to "hearing the grownups talk in the next room, my mother included, talking derisively about 'fairies' and men being dragged off to jail and even worse for being who they were."
Grey was married to actress Jo Wilder for 24 years, which he referred to "the happiest [time] of my life." The former couple have two children together, actress Jennifer Grey and son James.
Grey has been out to friends and family for years now, yet "it took time to embrace that other part of who I always was," he admitted.
"I feel very happy for my dad that he has come to a point in his life where he feels safe and comfortable enough to declare himself in a public way as a gay man," Jennifer told the magazine. "Mostly because the more people are free to own their true nature and can hopefully come closer to love and accept themselves as they really are, no matter what age, no matter how long it takes, to finally be free of the lies or half truths, it is freedom."
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