I'm being true to myself and that means everything

AFTER hitting rock bottom and battling thoughts of self-harm during the Covid lockdown, Dame Kelly Holmes reveals she has found inner peace after opening up to the world about her sexuality.

-  LAURA ARMSTRONG and NICOLA FAHEY

The double Olympic champion, who revealed she is gay last year, now hopes that by being open she will help others fighting similar battles in silence.

In her memoir, Unique, out this month, Kelly, 53, tells of her journey from hiding her sexuality as a young soldier at a time when being gay in the military was illegal, to her fears of being outed as she stood on the podium at the Athens Olympics, the games which catapulted her to fame as a double-gold medallist.

She recalls: "80,000 people were chanting my name as I stood on top of a double-decker bus and did a victory lap of my hometown. I'd won two Olympic gold medals, the first woman in the UK to ever do that, and I should have been on top of the world at my homecoming parade but even in that magical moment I had this deep fear that someone was going to go to the media and out me for being gay.

"All my life I lived with that fear and anxiety of not being accepted if I lived publicly as my true self. But 18 years later I was standing on stage in Trafalgar Square at London Pride, and people were chanting for me again, this time for the person I have become and I was finally free to be me. Nothing is perfect, the journey continues and I'm learning every day about the community I'm now proud to be part of. But I'm being true to myself and that means everything."

Kelly is now dating a fellow fitness fan named Louise who she has asked to move in with her.

As her memoir, Unique, is released, Dame Kelly Holmes opens up about finding love after bravely coming out last year.

Kelly smiles: "She loves me for me."

The former athlete says of her Northern Irish love: "I'm just happy... I'm happy with Lou. It makes it a lot easier being with somebody that I really get on with, and who just likes me for me.

"Lou's a different person... she's a nice person. She's somebody that doesn't want anything.