Amanda Barrie publicly came out as bisexual in 2003 and married her partner, crime novelist Hilary Bonner in 2014. The Coronation Street legend was convinced she would be booted off the show if she revealed her sexuality. The 89-year-old actress - who played Alma Halliwell, the wife of factory owner Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs), in the ITV soap on and off from 1981 until her alter ego's death from cervical cancer in 2001 - had always known she was bisexual.

During her run on the cobbles, she admittedly did not say anything because she believed some cast members at the time would have refused to work with her. The star, who separated - but had not divorced - from her husband of 20 years, the late actor Robin Hunter, warned Hilary when they first met that if anything happened between them, their life would be "very different".

She told Best magazine: "It would never have been a big deal with me in any sort of a way, but I was convinced I would have got the sack from Coronation Street if I'd been exposed.

"There would have been people in the cast at that time who would have said, 'I'm not working with her.'

"I will not name or shame them, but that's how it was."

While starring in the soap from 1981 to 1982 and 1988 to 2001, she refused to confirm her sexuality. It wasn't until after that she come out.

Amanda explained: "My now wife, Hilary, 76, was a journalist and writer, and from the moment we met, I told her if anything happens between us, you won't be able to just bounce into a room - things will be very different.

"We both had been married before to men, yet when we got together, she didn't have to go through anything like that. It almost became fashionable."

Amanda married her long-term partner Hilary at London's Drury Lane Theatre in 2014. They were together 10 years before they wed.