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Broadway ‘Cabaret’ Star Joel Grey Opens About Why He Stayed in the Closet Till He Was 82

Last year acclaimed Broadway actor Joel Grey (Cabaret, Wicked) came out of the closet as a gay man at the age of 82. Now, Grey is opening up about why he waited so long to share this news with the world.


Last year Joel Grey came out as a gay man. Grey who was married to Jo Wilder for almost 25 years, and fathered two children including actress Jennifer Grey and James Katz, kept his sexual orientation a secret from all but the people closest to him, as he told People:

"All the people close to me have known for years who I am. [Yet] it took time to embrace that other part of who I always was."

Recently, while promoting his new book, Master of Ceremonies, Joel Gray spoke with Playbill about why he felt the need to live in the closet for so long:

“Living in the society that I was living in at the time, being gay was not an option. If you were gay, you had to be terribly, terribly discreet. Being seen in the wrong place or with the wrong crowd could wreck a career back then. It was just too risky.”

Thankfully times have changed and it is becoming easier for people to publically be who they truly are. 

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