The actress is "very happy" that her father has found his "freedom", while the Oscar-winning star admits that it's taken "time to embrace the other part" of his identity
The father of Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey has come out as a gay man at the age of 82.
Broadway legend Joel Grey has opened up to People magazine about coming out.
“I don’t like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I’m a gay man,” the Tony and Oscar-winner told the magazine.
Grey, who is best known for his role in the screen and stage production of Cabaret in which he starred opposite Liza Minnelli and Michael York, revealed that his family had known about his sexuality for many years but he had chosen to keep it private.
"It took time to embrace that other part of who I always was," Grey explained.
In his interview, Joel – who recently starred in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – said that he remembers growing up in Ohio where he listened to "the grownups talk in the next room, my mother included, talking derisively about 'fairies' and men being dragged off to jail and even worse for being who they were."
Joel was married to actress Jo Wilder for 24-years and his father to son Jeff and daughter Jennifer Grey, which he described as “the happiest (time) of my life”.
The Dirty Dancing actress told People that she was “very happy” that her father had found his “freedom”.
"Mostly because the more people are free to own their true nature and can hopefully come closer to love and accept themselves as they really are," she said in a statement.
