Meredith baxter is gay

Before Baxter, 62, first started dating women seven years ago, the thought of being gay “had never crossed my mind,” she tells PEOPLE. Meredith Baxter, who played mother Elyse Keaton on the s TV series "Family Ties," has revealed that she is a lesbian.

meredith baxter movies

"I am a lesbian, and it was a later-in-life recognition of that. Meredith Baxter is when it comes to Today show appearances and massive personal revelations. Last time she sat down with Matt Lauer, she revealed she was a lesbian. This time? She shared. Before coming to terms with her sexual orientation, American actress Meredith Baxter endured three short marriages to different men, which yielded five children.

March 2, -- Meredith Baxter led a "secret life" as an emotionally abused wife for years before learning she was gay and entering "the healthiest relationship I have ever had," the star of the '80s show, " Family Ties," told Oprah Winfrey today while holding the hand of her lesbian partner. Baxter, 63, also joined by her former television co-star, Michael Gross, and her children, appeared on "Oprah" to discuss her allegedly abusive marriage and what led her to discover she was gay.

When she first learned she was a lesbian in , Baxter said, "It didn't scare me and I don't know why I wasn't confused about it. Baxter and her partner, general contractor Nancy Locke, 54, have lived together since But for 15 years, Baxter alleges in her new book, "Untied," her husband, David Birney, was physically and emotionally abusive, a charge that Birney, now 71, steadfastly has denied.

The couple co-starred in the s show "Bridget Loves Birney. It was a secret life," said Baxter. Baxter said that she turned to alcohol to numb the pain, driving home from the set of "Family Ties" with a tumbler full of wine.

Crazed and reckless and unmindful of anybody else," Baxter said of her behavior. I don't know what I was saying to myself but I was so angry. Gross, who played Baxter's husband on "Family Ties" and sat by her side on "Oprah," said that for the first six years of the television show nobody knew anything. Baxter eventually had a breakdown while Birney was working in Europe, she said. We didn't know because she kept her mouth shut.

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