Dame Kelly Holmes was ‘scared witless’ before coming out as gay over ‘fear of going to jail’-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro

Dame Kelly Holmes has spoken out how scared she was to come out as gay after previously having her room ransacked while serving in the army, saying she carried a ‘fear of going to jail’ with her even years afterwards.

At the age of 18, Dame Kelly – who recently joined Loose Women as a new panelist – enlisted in the British Army.

Serving from 1988 to 1997, the two-time Olympic gold medal winner recalled how her room was ‘ransacked’ and she was ‘interrogated’ over the possibility of being gay, as prior to 2000, the armed forces had a ban in place against homosexuality, before the archaic law was changed.

Speaking on Monday’s Loose Women, the 52-year-old – who came out as gay in June this year – explained that the fear she had of going to jail continued to impact her when she continued keeping her true identity hidden from the public.

‘I was scared witless. When I came out in June this year publicly, I had to resolve these issues that had been in my life,’ she said.

‘I was scared that if I ever came out and admitted being gay while I served, that I could still go to jail. That was how my head had created this wall and barrier.’

‘I want people to now come out, because I’m finally free,’ she said (Picture: ITV)

As fellow Loose Women presenter Janet Street-Porter shook her head in disbelief, Dame Kelly outlined how people’s relatives who served in the army might still be affected by similar worries.

‘That’s so many people – your grandparents, your parents, your aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers… they could have suffered this. You might still not know, because they still might not be out. It could be your colleagues, your friends,’ she said.

‘People that have served have lived with this in their DNA for so long. I want people to now come out, because I’m finally free of that. It took a lot of years.’

The retired athlete received her damehood in 2005 (Picture: Anwar Hussein Collection/ROTA/WireImage)

Dame Kelly is promoting a campaign calling for military personnel who were affected by the ban between 1967 to 2000 to come forward with their stories, stressing that it would be for an independent review and ‘no one will know who you are’, with the review being independent from the military, the Ministry of Defence and the government.

Around 500 people have already submitted testimonials for the review, the campaign for which is being led by Lord Etheron before it closes on November 15.

Dame Kelly outlined how they’ve discovered people who were impacted by the ban who are homeless, were sexually abused, blackmailed, verbally abuse, had their pensions scrapped and haven’t had a job since, losing ‘every part of who they are as a person’.

‘I would not have been a double Olympic champion because it would have ruined my life,’ Dame Kelly said as she imagined what would have happened if she’d been kicked out of the military due to the ban (Picture: Graeme Robertson/Getty Images)

‘I was ransacked, I had that interrogation,’ she said, adding that it could have been a ‘sliding door moment’ for it.

The retired athlete explained that if she’d been caught, or if there had been even an ‘insinuation’ in a letter from her family that she might be gay, she could have been ‘stripped of everything’.

‘I would not have been a double Olympic champion because it would have ruined my life,’ she stated.

‘I wouldn’t have become a member of the British Empire, an award from the British Army. I wouldn’t have been many of these things. There’s so many people who could have done so much more with their lives, but lives have been ruined.’

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV.

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