‘I’m a big old gay’: Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning comes out
Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning has publicly come out as a “big old gay”. The British actress discussed her sexuality for the first time on the podcast Reign with Josh Smith, revealing that she initially came out to her friends and family in November 2022. “That was a mega, mega thing for me,” she explained. “I am surrounded by gays.
Like, all my friends are gay. So, it wasn’t that I was repressing anything. It was just that I didn’t think that I could be… I still can’t articulate it in the best way.” Gunning continued to describe herself as a “big old gay”: “I was like, ‘That’s what it’s been, that’s what it is.’ And that was a massive moment where everything kind of clicked, and I made sense of myself then. “For so long I’d thought, ‘I know I’m a bigger woman’ and I thought that maybe it was to do with my size, that I felt a bit like, almost alien, or like I was tagging along. “But as soon as I realised I was like, ‘No, it’s that’ and that was the most liberating thing.” Earlier this year, Gunning received universal critical acclaim for her performance as Martha in Netflix’s black comedy slash thriller series Baby Reindeer.
One of the streamer’s most-watched titles in history, the series sees Scottish comedian Richard Gadd dramatise his harrowing true experience of being stalked by a middle-aged woman named Martha.
Gunning previously earned praise for her roles in the BBC dramas White Heat (2012) and What Remains (2013), as well as the comedy series The Outlaws (2021-present), which returned for a third season last month.
