Reverend Richard Coles has lived many lives, from being in an 80s music group to retiring as a vicar.
He has worked in the entertainment industry for many years, from hosting a radio show to appearing on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
Away from his public life, he has suffered a very sad loss after his partner tragically passed away.
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While working as a vicar, Reverend Coles met fellow priest David Oldham. The pair began dating in 2007 and entered into a civil partnership three years later.
The couple were together for over a decade when David sadly passed away due to alcoholism in 2019.
In his autobiography The Madness Of Grief, Reverend Coles opened up about being in a same-sex partnership while being in the church.
He said: “It was very difficult in the church, because it was kind of acceptable to be in a same-sex partnership but you were expected to have a celibate relationship – which I was unable to do.”
He added: “I think it would have been worse to have denied myself and David the kind of unique, wonderful thing that came with having a relationship.”
Reverend Coles spoke about the reality of being gay and being a vicar in the Church of England.
“I felt sometimes like I was in the resistance and they were the Gestapo,” he told The TImes. “I mean, I'm overstating it, but what I did feel is that they had no moral cause, so I didn't feel that I had a moral obligation at all.
“And I'm not the first person to find themselves obliged to lie for institutional reasons in the Church of England.”
Reverend Coles later found love again with actor Dickie Cant, who has appeared in Midsomer Murders and The Crown.
The pair originally met on a dating website and soon discovered that they actually had many friends in common. Their first date was at the Royal Horticultural Society.
“I wanted to meet someone who had been around the block and wanted to share a life with someone. I thought I was out of the game when David died,” he said while appearing on Lorraine.
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