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  "description": "A former Coronation Street star has revealed she believed she would have been sacked if her sexuality became public, as she reflects on decades spent hiding her identity and says she is still “learning how to be free” at the age of 90.\n\nWriting in The i Paper, actor Amanda Barrie, who played Alma Halliwell on the ITV soap, said she was convinced during her time on the show in the 1980s that coming out would have ended her career. \n\n“Even as an actress… it was not always possible to be open,” she",
  "path": "/i-lived-in-the-shadows-former-corrie-star-amanda-barrie-on-coming-out-later-in-life/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-08T11:50:24.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.scenemag.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "“I thought I’d be fired from Corrie for being gay – at 90 I’m learning how to be free”"
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  "textContent": "A former _Coronation Street_ star has revealed she believed she would have been sacked if her sexuality became public, as she reflects on decades spent hiding her identity and says she is still “learning how to be free” at the age of 90.\n\nWriting in _The i Paper_ , actor**Amanda Barrie** , who played Alma Halliwell on the ITV soap, said she was convinced during her time on the show in the 1980s that coming out would have ended her career.\n\n“Even as an actress… it was not always possible to be open,” she wrote. “I firmly believed during my time in _Coronation Street_ in the 1980s that I would be sacked if my sexuality became public knowledge.”\n\nShe added that the close association between actors and their characters meant producers would have feared backlash from audiences, writing that “it would almost certainly have been felt that our viewers would not accept a gay Alma”.\n\nBarrie described how those fears shaped her life for decades, saying she became accustomed to “living in the shadows” after years of concealing her sexuality.\n\nShe said the culture she grew up in made openness impossible, recalling: “Homosexuality wasn’t a word you even heard mentioned. I, like so many, lived a life of denial.”\n\nAt school, she said she tried to conform despite recognising her feelings for other girls. “I even invented boyfriends so that I would fit in,” she wrote, adding that she had in reality been “deeply in love with the head girl”.\n\nBarrie later married actor**Robin Hunter** in 1967, saying the relationship was genuine, but she continued to suppress her identity for many years.\n\nHer article also reflects on how markedly attitudes have changed since then. She noted that _Coronation Street_ now features numerous LGBTQ+ characters, remarking: “Now _Coronation Street_ abounds with gay characters, to the extent that I have wondered if it should be renamed Canal Street.”\n\nShe added wryly: “So it has occurred to me that maybe I was wrong. Maybe it is catching…”\n\nBarrie said she still finds it difficult to adjust to modern acceptance, writing: “I still half expect people to disapprove of me having a wife rather than a husband. And I doubt I will ever stop being surprised that, nowadays, at last, nobody seems to care.”\n\nShe married her long-term partner, novelist Hilary Bonner, in 2014, after same-sex marriage was legalised in the UK. But she admitted the legacy of years spent hiding her identity continued to weigh on her, even on her wedding day.\n\n“Old fears die slowly,” she wrote, explaining that “after so many years of hiding my real self… a little part of me did wonder if we might be arrested on the way out.”\n\nLooking back on her life, Barrie said she had recognised her feelings from a young age, recalling how traditional stories never quite fit her experience. As a child, she said she would lie awake thinking “the story should be set in a time when women can marry women”.\n\nHer reflections highlight both the pressures faced by LGBTQ+ people in previous decades and the extent of social change in Britain, with Barrie describing a journey from secrecy and fear to a later-life sense of openness.\n\n💡\n\nHer article, “I thought I’d be fired from Corrie for being gay – at 90 I’m learning how to be free”, was published by __The i Paper__ on 8 May.",
  "title": "‘I lived in the shadows’: Former Corrie star Amanda Barrie on coming out later in life",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-08T11:55:56.411Z"
}