Soap Star Joanna Johnson Comes out

Joanna Johnson (Handout photo)

 Soap star Joanna Johnson has become the latest celebrity to come out as a lesbian.

The longtime The Bold and the Beautiful star has come out of the closet in a revealing new interview with America’s TV Guide magazine, admitting she never thought she’d be happy as a gay woman.

Johnson, who played doomed heroine Caroline Spencer and her identical twin Karen on the long-running daytime soap series, tells the publication she kept her sexuality secret for two decades because she was worried she “wouldn’t be employable as an actress” if the truth was revealed.

She says, “I had to deal with a lot of self-loathing. After I started playing Karen, I remember doing a fantasy scene that showed what life would have been like if (TV sister) Caroline had not died of cancer. She was married to Ridge (Ronn Moss) and had two kids and a wonderful life. When we finished shooting, I ran to my dressing room and just cried and cried because I knew I was never going to have that kind of life.”

But she insists she is very happy as club promoter Michelle Agnew’s partner. The couple has two kids.

Johnson admits she felt compelled to come out by the ongoing storyline on The Bold and the Beautiful, in which her character Karen is married to Crystal Chappell’s character Dani.

She adds, “Times have certainly changed. I guess that’s why I’m ready to open up. It feels weird and wrong to play this revelation about Karen’s life and not talk about my own.

“I used to hang out with (famous lesbians) Ellen DeGeneres, k.d. lang and Melissa Etheridge back in the day and thought it was so beautiful they were out, even though I didn’t have the nerve… I’m not anywhere near as famous as those ladies, but I guess it’s my turn to do my little part. It’s time to live a fully authentic life.”

–WENN