'Baby Reindeer' Star Jessica Gunning Comes out as Gay

The 'Baby Reindeer' star looks back on the "massive moment" she came out to her family.

By Anna Rumer

Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning is opening up about embracing her sexuality! The British actress, 38, revealed she was gay for the first time publicly during the June 4 episode of the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, looking back on the "massive moment" in which she was able to come out to her friends and family in November 2022.

While discussing the topic of self-love in relation to her popular Netflix series, Gunning shared her own experience with the practice. "Do you feel like you're stepping into yourself in new ways now?" host Josh Smith asked Gunning, who responded, "Well, a big thing happened to me and maybe I'll just talk about it. I came out actually in November '22. ... And that was a mega, mega thing for me because I, for so long, I'm surrounded by gays. Like all my friends are gay. So it wasn't that I was, like, repressing anything. It was just that I didn't think I could be and I still can't articulate it in the best way."

She explained that she eventually felt like she couldn't deny her feelings. "I realized I was a big old gay," the actress said. "I was like, that's what it's been. That's what it is." That was a  "massive moment where everything kind of clicked," she continued. "And I made sense of myself then because for so long, I'd thought – and I'm a bigger woman – and I thought maybe it was to do with, like, my size. But I felt a little bit almost alien or like I was tagging along."

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Coming out was "the most liberating thing" for Gunning, who said the whole experience reminded her of a scene from Baby Reindeer in which Donny (Richard Gadd) talks about sleeping for the first time at his parents' house. Looking back on her own situation, Gunning said she completely related to the sense of relief. "I told my family in Christmas that year and I slept for like 10 hours at night," she explained. "Yeah, because I kind of was like, 'Oh, that's what this has been.' It's been like a little secret, I guess, I've been keeping from myself even."

Baby Reindeer is now streaming on Netflix. 

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