Ian’s fraud dilemma

SIR IAN McKELLEN would have felt like a fraud if he’d accepted his knighthood before coming out as gay.

The Lord Of The Rings actor went public with his sexuality in January 1988 on BBC radio and accepted his OBE for services to the public arts three years later. He had the opportunity to pick up a knighthood beforehand but didn’t feel it would have been appropriate.

“I will always be glad that I didn’t accept the knighthood until I’d come out of the closet,” he tells the June addition of Attitude magazine. “If you’re lying about that central part of your nature, can you be trusted? I think that’s why when people come out the reception is usually positive. People like honesty. They think if gay people don’t talk about being gay that they have something to be ashamed of and it’s a secret.”

The man who turns 79 next month said he sought advice from acclaimed US author pal Armistead Maupin over the best time to reveal his true sexuality: “He was much more politically aware than I was at the time. For the first time in his life he didn’t know what to say. I think that Armistead probably knew the most important reason for me to come out was for myself. And so it proved. It was the best thing I ever did in my life.”

In January, Sir Ian marked the announcement with a tweet. “Today is the 30th anniversary of the BBC radio discussion when I publicly said I was gay,” he wrote. “So I’m celebrating. Life at last begins to make sense when you are open and honest.”

NO SLEEP AND A LOT OF YOU “WHAT’S THAT THING CALLED? YEAH, NO SLEEP. I’M ON TEAM GUYS KNOW WHAT THAT’S LIKE.” PRINCE WILLIAM ISN’T THE ONLY NEW DAD SEEMINGLY NO JOHNSON CLAIMING HE’S HAD SHORT ON SLEEP, WITH DWAYNE WEEK SHUT-EYE SINCE THE BIRTH OF HIS DAUGHTER TIANA LAST