Erin Doherty Felt ‘Pressure’ To Hide Her Sexuality Or Risk Her Career
etcanada.comErin Doherty is opening up about the pressures of being an LGBTQ+ star in the spotlight. Since landing the role of Princess Anne on “The Crown”, the actress admitted to the Telegraph that she worried about revealing her sexuality. ‘I’m not gonna lie, I won’t name names, but when I got ‘The Crown’, I felt a lot of pressure to withhold my sexuality.
There was a period of time when I was like, ‘Do I get to be open about this in order to have a successful career?’ And the fact that that question still went through my mind, and may still go through other people’s minds, is so gutting.” READ MORE: Erin Doherty Shares Princess Anne’s Disdain Of Social Media The actress played the real-life royal in seasons 3 and 4 on the famous show. “I’m really aware of all the people who have lived years and years and years, either in shame or denial, or just hiding — actors, actresses definitely stopping it getting out there in order to have a career — and I just want to be a part of trying to do something about that.” Doherty is currently in a committed relationship with fellow actress Sophie Melville, whom she met on the set of “The Divide” in 2017.
She didn’t come out with their relationship publicly until 2019. The actress worried that people would assume she couldn’t play roles with heterosexual romances, saying it was “shocking” that someone could say, “Oh, but you’re gay, so you can’t play straight.” Rather than let the concerns eat her up inside, Doherty turned it into a strength, as she channelled the sense of extreme public scrutiny in her portrayal of Princess Anne. READ MORE: Erin Doherty Reveals Wrapping ‘The Crown’ Caused Her Mental Health To Take A ‘Dip’ She said the royal was “constantly aware of comments on her
