Navratilova urges gays to come out

6:55am Sunday 23rd November 2008

Lesbian tennis legend Martina Navratilova called on all gays to "please come out" during a frank conversation about her sexuality on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Fellow camp mate Robert Kilroy-Silk, the former talk show host and MEP, asked the sportswoman about her attraction to women, saying: "Are you like me? Do you look at girls and fancy them?"

She replied: "Yeah, it depends if I'm in a relationship or not, which I usually am, so I try to shut it out, but if I see a beautiful woman I'm wow - she's gorgeous".

When Kilroy-Silk asked if there were still prejudices, she said: "I think I was pretty absorbed in it because of who I am. But friends of mine have encountered it but it's more sniggering or talking behind somebody's back. The odd comment."

She went on: "Some girlfriends were in the closet so you had to pretend to parents what's going on with the family. You have to heterosexualise your apartment. You move into two bedrooms, move the photos, hide the sweetest photos.

"Whenever people do come out of the closet, they feel so liberated. They're like: 'Why didn't I do this sooner?' My message to all the gays is please come out. Come out, suffer the consequences but the upside is so much greater that any downside."

In other jungle news from the ITV1 reality TV show, ex-Dollar singer David Van Day was reduced to tears ahead of a gruelling challenge involving rats, toads and eels.

Kilroy-Silk, who won the Live Trial on Thursday night, encouragingly said there was "no pressure" for him to come back a winner.

When it came to the challenge, Van Day was told he would have seven minutes to crawl through tunnels and find stars hidden within cracks, crevasses and under water and mud.

He returned to the camp apologetic and deflated with only five stars, which would equate to just five meals for the camp.