Dame Kelly Holmes says getting Covid helped her come out as a lesbian

Dame Kelly Holmes has revealed that getting Covid helped her to come out publicly.

The 55-year-old Olympic gold medallist , who came out publicly as a lesbian in June 2022, and two years later joked that she was “living her youth” after coming out, reflected on her personal journey on the BBC’s LGBT Sport Podcast.

Holmes previously told theSunday Mirrorthat she first realised she was gay in 1988, when she was in the armed services and a fellow female soldier kissed her. However, fear of prosecution — under a ban on LGBTQ+ service members that remained in place until 2000 — forced her to stay silent.

She told former boxer Nicola Adams, who presents the podcast, that contracting Covid sparked a chain of events that led to her living freely.

‘I don’t want to live my life like this’

“Covid became quite traumatic… I was internalising those thoughts of ‘I don’t want to live my life like this’, she shared, adding that if she would’ve passed those close to her would reflect not the “shame” of her not living authentically.

This led her to speak to a psychologist for the first time, which led her to the realisation that she was ready to publicly come out.

She said: ”I needed to explain why I couldn’t come out because of the army, because a lot of people didn’t know about the army ban… nobody knew that that was actually the underlying reason for not coming out.”

Holmes previously explained that coming out has made her “happy for the first time in my life”, and said it’s “changed everything about me”.

In 2023, Holmes stepped out with her girlfriendLouise Cullen, a sports massage therapist from Northern Ireland, at the European Diversity Awards. She has since shared that she feels she’s “found the one” in Cullen.

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