Actress Saffron Burrows on Monday
announced that she married her girlfriend Alison Balian last year.
The couple have been together for six
and a half years and are raising a 2-year-old son.
The 42-year-old Burrows is best known
for her portrayal of Detective Serena Stevens on the television drama
Law & Order: Criminal Intent and
her appearances in such films as In the Name of the Father
and Deep Blue Sea.
“I always liked the idea of being
with someone for a while and then getting married, but I didn't know
if I'd do it,” she told The
Guardian. “I'm quite a romantic, I probably thought I
would do it.”
Burrows said that she and Balian, a
writer for the Ellen DeGeneres Show, eloped last August.
Burrows was previously involved with
film director Mike Figgis and actor Alan Cumming.
She explained that she was discussing
her private life because she was proud of her family but added that
she was not gay.
“I chose to speak to you because …
I'm really proud of my family and who they are, these two individuals
beside me. That's certainly my proudest achievement. And for my
boy, I want to be honest with him because he deserves it – but also
proud. And I want us to live a very honest life with each other. I
think for a while I was just avoiding conversations, in order to not
be labeled in some way that I felt was limiting and not actually true
to who I am.”
“I really salute these young women
who come out,” she said, a nod to Ellen Page, “but if I said I
was gay that wouldn't be true.”