Actor Joel Grey, who came out publicly
last year, says in a new interview that he came out to his mother
when he was a teen.
Grey is best known for playing the
Master of Ceremonies in the stage and film versions of Cabaret.
Last year, he told PEOPLE that he's “a
gay man.”
Grey married actress Jo Wilder in 1958.
Together they have 2 children. The marriage ended 24 years later,
in 1982.
In a conversation with out actor Kevin
Sessums, Grey discussed being sexually abused as a teenager by the
cantor at his family's temple.
“He was about ten years older and
kind of irresponsible,” Grey said. “But I didn't see it that
way, 'cause I was a kid.”
When the man married a woman in the
congregation, Grey was devastated and he decided he needed to come
out his parents.
Grey said that his mother responded by
saying that she was “disgusted” and didn't want to speak to him
ever again.
“She herself was not very
sophisticated and had kind of a brutal family that she came from,”
Grey
explained. “I totally forgive her and think that she's kind of
marvelous. And she gave me my love of art.”