‘Baby Reindeer’ actress Jessica Gunning, 38, comes out as 'big old gay' publicly after Netflix show success

Baby Reindeer actress Jessica Gunning has publicly shared she is gay for the first time as she has discussed her coming out story.

The 38-year-old star who portrayed stalker Martha in Richard Gadd’s hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer, has opened up about her sexuality. She said she came out in November 2022 to both her friends and family.

The longtime LGBTQ+ rights activist has spoken about coming out as a “big old gay” to her loved ones in November 2022 at the age of 36. She said: ‘That was a mega, mega thing for me. I’m surrounded by gays, all my friends are gay and so it wasn’t that I was 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 continued: “But yeah, I realised I was a big old gay, and I was like, “That’s what it’s been. That’s what it is. That was a massive moment where everything clicked and I made sense for myself then.”

Speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, she also said that because she was a “bigger woman” she felt a “little bit alien” and like she was “tagging along”. Until one day she realised “no it’s not that”. Gunning, who has also just been announced as Dame Washalot in the live action movie adaptation of Enid Blyton's beloved The Faraway Tree books, explained: “That was the most liberating thing.”

Gunning, who has also recently reprised her role as community supervisor Diane in the third season of The Outlaws on BBC, said that after telling her family during the Christmas period as her friends she “slept for 10 hours that night”. She went on: “It’s been a little secret, I guess I’ve been keeping from myself even. And not in a kind of hating way. I never felt I was repressing anything in a bad way or that any reaction would be bad.” She explained she just “didn’t think [she] could be.”

The actor, who appeared in 2014 film Pride as future Swansea MP Sian James, explained that during the recording of the film she would “cry all the time”. She added: “I did a play (When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other) with Cate Blanchett where I got to kiss her every night on stage again, should have known then.” She concluded: “All these signs from the universe! It took me 36 years, but I did it.”

The actress said she has found the whole experience “very freeing and very grounding”. She added: ‘It’s actually really emotional. And some of my straight friends have actually said they envy people being able to come out because it feels like a celebration of who you are.

‘And I think we’re coming into a time where we won’t ever need to really come out again. But when you do, it is so exposing. But it’s also really lovely going, ‘this is my soul’.” Finally, she thanked friends for being “amazing and supportive”.