Beccy Cole has publicly announced she is gay, doing so to emphasise to  her  son the importance of ‘being true to yourself’.

Cole claims to have known she was gay following her failed marriage to her husband Mick Albeck in 1999. Cole’s son Ricky has known about her sexual identity, but has kept it is a secret up until now.

Despite concerns of losing her rural Australia fan base, Cole felt she needed to come out for her son.

Cole explained to channel 9 news -“one day when he told me he had a mate coming over and he said, ‘don’t worry, he doesn’t know’, and I thought, ‘gosh, he shouldn’t feel like he has to hide anything’.”

Cole will talk more about her ten year struggle with coming out on Australian Story tonight, at 8pm.