BBC Radio three breakfast presenter Petroc Trelawny has revealed that he regrets that never came out to his father before he died 10 years ago.
Army officer Richard ‘certainly knew’ his son was gay, but the two never spoke about it.
Trelawny said the conversation would have been stressful, and didn’t really believe that anything would be achieved by it.
The 53-year-old told the Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast: ‘My father never made any homophobic comments, interestingly. I think… I think he probably knew. He certainly knew later on. I never, I slightly regret that I never talked to him about it.
Petroc Trelawny in east Cornwall. The BBC Radio three host has revealed his regret over not coming out to his father before his death
Trelawny (pictured at Paddington Station) said the conversation would have been ‘stressful’ and that he didn’t believe it would have achieved anything
Trelawny’s parents Richard and Jennifer on their wedding day in 1953. The BBC presenter said his father ‘certainly knew’ he was gay despite them never discussing it
Trelawny pictured aged around eight in his home village of St Martin, Cornwall
In response to the question of whether he ever came out to his father, he said: ‘Never came out to him, no, no, and he only died 10 years ago so I had plenty of opportunity to.
‘But I know, I know he talked about it a lot with my brothers. You know, asking if I was happy and asking if, you know, how my life was and so on so there was a conversation – it’s very strange, actually, that we never talked about it.
‘I don’t know why not, that he never… I guess we were just both… why stress yourself out by having that conversation?
‘What was going to be achieved by it? If I had had a lover I wanted to take home who I was going to spend the rest of my life with then perhaps it would’ve been a bit different, but you know…’
In August, Trelawny released a book called Trelawny’s Cornwall: A Journey through Western Lands – a history and memoir of the place where he grew up.
It details his fascination with the railway but also his bittersweet memories associated with the county, including the last time he saw his mother after waving goodbye to her on a sleeper train for London to a hospital to be treated for breast cancer.