Gossip
Sir Ian McKellen Felt Like A Second-Class Citizen
The actor has said he never dreamed that he would be able to marry and have children.
McKellen has recently spoken out about the difficulties of being gay, saying he had always felt like a second-class citizen.
When asked why he had not entered into a civil partnership, he replied: "It's never crossed my mind that it'd ever be possible for me”.
He continued on to say: “That's the scar that I and so many others bear – we believed ourselves to be second-rate citizens for so long, the idea of being able to say 'This is my husband, these are my children' was not an option".
"It was horrible living this secret life. You could feel a little bit what it was like to be a Jew in central Europe during a certain period".
"I think that explains why a lot of actors of my generation are gay. Acting was a means to publicly display my emotions in a way that was illegal for me to do as a private person”.
McKellen, now 70, came out at the age of 49, having kept his sexuality a secret for many years.
