British children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson has publicly shared that she is gay and in a long-term relationship.
The author says the information is ‘old news’ to people who know her well, as she’s been living with her partner Trish for over 18 years.
“I’ve never really been in any kind of closet. It would be such old news for anybody that has ever known anything much about me. Even the vaguest acquaintance knows perfectly well that we are a couple,” she said.
Wilson said she’d decided to be more open about her won sexuality because she’s often be asked why she didn’t have more LGBTI characters in her books.
The author explained that she hadn’t previously focused a novel on a gay character because she was telling stories about children with problems, and she didn’t see “any problem whatsoever with being gay”.
Her next book however does focus on an LGBTIQ+ character, Love Frankie, is due to be published in August.
Wilson told The Guardian says she wanted to write “a truthful, honest book about a girl falling in love with another girl. It’s certainly not aimed at young gay teenagers, it’s aimed at all teenagers who have ever worried because they haven’t fallen in love, or they have fallen in love.”
The new book will be Wilson’s 111th release in her decades long career.
OIP Staff
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