Russell Tovey and his mother Carole sat down with London’s Sunday Times for an interview about the Looking and Years and Years actor and ‘Talk Art’ podcast host’s coming out. Tovey said he has a “great” relationship with both parents now but his dad wanted to “cure” him with hormone treatments at one point.
Said Tovey: “I don’t think either of my parents were homophobic, they just didn’t know any gay people or anyone with gay kids. They had nothing to cling to. My dad thought it could be cured. He was scared about what my life would be like. To him, being gay was a road of pitfalls and unhappiness; out of love he wanted to correct this weakness, to put cotton wool around me and protect me from all that. People react in different ways, there’s no rhyme or reason, but if you love someone you have to respect the process.”
Carole added, “George had a hard time with it. It took him about three years to come to terms with it. I think it was to do with pride, his idea of what makes you a man. He thought we’d somehow made Russell gay. ‘We’ll get him hormone treatment.’ He found it hard to see that Russ was happy and we had to accept it.”
