Ben Whishaw Got Real About Coming Out In His 20s After Not Being Openly Gay In The 2000s

You know Ben Whishaw from plenty of things at this point — including his turn as Q in the recent James Bond movies, as well as critically acclaimed performances in films like Passages and, you guessed it, his voice work in the Paddington series.

Ben has been openly gay since he entered into a civil partnership with ex Mark Bradshaw in 2012 (they split in 2022). In 2014, he publicly discussed being gay for the first time in an interview with the Sunday Times.

In a new interview with the Sunday Times published this week, the actor discussed his years in the public eye before coming out. “I think it’s down to every single person to do what’s right for them,” he said. “For me, it’s better to be out.”

“I’m definitely happier," he said on his decision to go public. "I remember days when I wasn’t out and that was a more stressful and unhappy position.”

“So I’m grateful that’s over and also grateful that we live in a world where it’s not a shameful thing.”

Ben went on to explain that, when his star started to rise in the early 2000s, " if you had said to another actor you were gay, it was implied or sometimes said explicitly that that was something you shouldn’t make a big thing about.”

“It was a disability, almost," he said.

“There weren’t a vast number [of out actors], and nobody my age," he continued. "But gay people of my generation came in at a strange time post-AIDS, which had a whole knock-on effect."

“It doesn’t need to be anyone’s business, but being happy in oneself, not ashamed, is probably better."

You can read the entire interview here .