For seven years, actress Meredith Baxter has been hiding a secret.
Now Baxter, who played the devoted hippie mom constantly butting heads with her conservative kids on “Family Ties,” is making a public admission.
“I am a lesbian and it was a later-in-life recognition,” she told Matt Lauer on the TODAY show.
“Some people would say, well, you’re living a lie and, you know, the truth is — not at all. This has only been for the past seven years.”
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Baxter, 62, though anxious, decided to come out on national television after her sexuality became tabloid fodder.
“I’ve always lived a very private life,” said the actress, who’s never even had a publicist. “To come out and disclose stuff is very antithetical to who I am.”
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Baxter says that her relationship with men was complicated, and it took her decades to understand why.
She says she has been with her current girlfriend, Nancy Locke, a contractor she met through mutual friends, for the past four years. Because Locke is openly lesbian, their relationship has not been kept a closely guarded secret.
Now that she is coming out, she also sees herself as an advocate for gay rights.
“This is a political act, even though that’s not what it feels like to me,” she said. “If anyone knows someone who’s gay or lesbian … they’re less likely to vote against them to take away their rights. I can be that lesbian you know now …”
