TV personality and model Christine McGuinness has spoken in public about her sexuality for the first time, saying she dated men and women before meeting her now ex-husband and it was “never a secret for me”.

Christine and comedian Paddy McGuinness announced in 2022 they had made the “difficult decision to separate” after 11 years of marriage, adding that their “main focus, as always, is to continue loving and supporting our children”.

In the wake of the split-up, there has been speculation about The Real Housewives of Cheshire star’s sexuality, and she was said to be open to dating both men and women ahead of her scheduled appearance on Celebs Go Dating.

However, she quit the reality show after flying out to Ibiza for the first week of filming in early May, saying she “realised that dating on a public platform, and the attention that brings, is just too soon for me”.

Appearing on podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, in which guests share their failures and what the experience has taught them, McGuinness said she had not discussed her sexuality publicly because for because it took her “years to process why it’s big news, why is it such a big story in the press”.

The star went on: “It shouldn’t matter somebody’s gender. It never mattered to me, which was why once me and my ex-husband were separated and I met people, I didn’t properly date. It was more like blurred lines of friendships for me, that was normal.

“It felt comfortable because I’d done that as a teenager: dated both men and women. My ex-husband knew. My family knew. It was never a secret for me.

“When I was single again… it was made such a big fuss of in the press, I almost went back into myself. I went extremely quiet from feeling quite comfortable and happy and free,” McGuinness continued of her sexuality.

“I almost was going backwards and I could feel myself shrinking and staying quieter because of the noise around it, it almost made me feel I must be doing something wrong because why would it be front page news? Why is it on every cover of every magazine if I’m seen with a woman?

“It’s happened multiple times over three years, and every time I’ve met another woman or started dating somebody else, if there’s a photograph, I always think: ‘Oh, well, it won’t be a big thing now. Surely, it will have calmed down’, [but it was] still is such a big thing.

“So, I’ve intentionally stayed quiet on it because I didn’t want to draw any more attention to what is my normal.”

But she has now reached the point where she realises that if she continued to not acknowledge it at some point, then things might never change.

“I want to be able to date and be able to just enjoy it,” she said. “I want to feel free to hold somebody’s hand. It shouldn’t matter if they’re male or female, it shouldn’t matter what their gender is.”

McGuinness refused to put a label on her sexuality, saying she has “always been quite a free spirit, that’s the only word I would put on it”.

She went on to say: “When I was a teenager, I dated boys and girls. [Aged] 14 or 15 was probably when I had my first kisses with both and I never felt it was anything different or a big deal.”

McGuinness told the podcast viewers that she’d had a two-year relationship with a woman before meeting Phoenix Nights star Paddy. “It’s not like women are better or worse, it’s simply that the connection for me is different,” she said.

“I need a connection now, I need something different. I love my family and Patrick is part of my family and always will be. But now for my next relationship, I know what I want and I want someone for me.

“I want someone I like spending time with, we can do stuff together that we both enjoy. I want that emotional connection where I can be open and can talk and be vulnerable and I can ask for help, but also have a laugh and a good time.

“It’s not like I’m trying to find a new family unit or someone to come in and be a step-parent. I want my next relationship to be for me.”

Discussing her relationship with her ex-husband, she disagreed with the idea that a marriage ending meant it had failed, noting they continue to live in the same house to co-parent their three children.

“We have our own spaces. I’m on the floor with the children and it works for us as a family because we don’t have to move the children,” she said. “When they come home from school, they know where they’re going. They’ve got their own rooms, their clothes, the computers, everything they need is in that house, and it doesn’t matter too much whether it’s mummy or daddy at home.”

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