UK rugby star Gareth Thomas has said
that years of lying about being gay made him suicidal.
Thomas, who retired from rugby in 2011
following an injury, publicly announced he is gay in 2009. The
38-year-old Welshman's coming out inspired other professional
athletes to come out, including English
cricketer Steven Michael Davies and Swedish footballer (European
soccer) Anton
Hysen.
Appearing on BBC's HARDtalk,
Thomas said he had created his own “dark” and “homophobic”
world.
“I had created this kind of dark,
horrible, I'd say almost homophobic, world,” Thomas said. “'Cause
I felt I had to create this because I have to justify why I lied
everyday. And my justification was, 'Well, I need to because I'm not
a stereotypical rugby player.'”
“When you lie everyday, you begin to
hate yourself, because it's not a nice thing to do. So, I reached
suicidal points because I just hated who I was, or what I was doing
to other people.”
“Literally?” host Stephen Sackur
asked.
“Oh yeah, literally. There's times
when I tried, and then there are times when I came close to trying.
And I thank God that it never actually happened.” (The video is
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