Heartache of telling my wife that I was gay by TV’s Dr Ranj
TV PRESENTER Dr Ranj Singh says he went for counselling before coming out as gay to his wife aged 30.
The resident doctor on ITV’s This Morning, who was brought up in a traditional Sikh household, had been married for three years to pharmacist Sulvinder Samra when he decided he must tell her the truth.
Ranj, 41, said: “As I was going through counselling and learning a bit more about who I was, I thought she has to be the first person I tell.
“You know it’s never easy to do something like that. But we had gay friends and it wasn’t that that world wasn’t a surprise. But I think the news was a surprise.”
Comfortable
Ranj, who works in paediatric emergency medicine, revealed it was easier telling his friends and family.
He said: “It’s never easy but the love I got back, the support then, made it easier as I went on.
“As a gay person, you’ll find that every time you meet someone new, it feels like you’re coming out again, you have to come out again every time.
“But over time, as you get used to who you are, and more and more comfortable in your own skin, that becomes a much, much easier process.
“Fortunately, I feel like the world has moved forward.
“I feel like younger people now are so much more comfortable being open, being fluid, being accepting and that we have so much to learn from
young people.” Ranj has admitted his decision to leave his wife was the “most difficult time” of his life.
But it is only now he has revealed he was driven to counselling as his marriage broke down.
He and Sulvinder were married in 2006 in a traditional Sikh ceremony. They divorced in 2011.