Dear Anna Richardson: How can I tell my family about my girlfriend after coming out?-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

Anna Richardson is here to answer your question! (Picture: Rex)

TV presenter Anna Richardson first hit our screens presenting The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 but is perhaps best known for hosting raunchy dating show, Naked Attraction.

The 52-year-old has also fronted the likes of The Sex Education Show, Secret Eaters and How Not To Get Old.

Earlier this year, she joined forces with Yinka Bokinni and Love Island’s Dr Alex George to bring us Naked Education.

This year for Pride Month, Anna is now taking on the role of being one of our Agony Aunts, and is here to answer your question.

Hi Anna, I only very recently came out to my family and they were really supportive, but unexpectedly, despite my determination to embrace being single, I have a girlfriend. It’s taken me well over a year to tell my family about her and now that I have I feel overwhelmed with anxiety thinking about introducing them. I know they’ll love her but I still don’t feel ready. Can you help?

Firstly, congratulations on having the courage to come out to your family, and also for finding a partner who sounds like a gem!

Anna Richardson is the host of beloved Channel 4 dating show Naked Attraction (Picture: Channel 4)

So, let me start by giving you a big, fat Pride sandwich of advice. I can offer you a top slice of positivity, a base of joy, and a filling packed with some challenging ingredients. It’s down to you which bits you choose to take away.

With that in mind, let’s begin with your family – how lucky, how fortunate, how supported you must feel to have your relatives accept you for who you are. Our family can be a source of safety or instability, so I’m relieved to hear that you feel secure with them – don’t underestimate the power of that.

They’ve accepted you, so why wouldn’t they accept your girlfriend? What is it about the act of introducing her to the people who love you the most that fills you with anxiety?

And that’s what makes me curious about how you may feel about yourself. I just wonder whether there’s a smidgen of internalised homophobia that you may be experiencing – in other words, a fear that, despite being happy as a gay person, there’s a ‘correct way to be’ and you fear your relationship is not measuring up to that in a heteronormative society. There’s only one way to find out though.

So, my advice would be to seek out a group of like-minded people who can support and advise you on the anxiety you’re feeling at this juncture in your life. Try www.lgbt.foundation or www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-psychological-therapies-service in the first instance.

And finally, let me end on a positive note – this is Pride month, a time for you to embrace the wonder and joy of being your own, unique, queer self. A person who is so very loved. Embrace it.

Love, Anna x

Hear more from advice Anna answering your dilemmas on her new love, sex and life advice podcast It Can’t Just Be Me

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