Meredith Baxter Comes Out

Ending constant speculation, actress Meredith Baxter came out Wednesday. She told Today Show host Matt Lauer (the video is at the link ) that “it was a later in life recognition” and that despite “having lived a very private life” she chose to do so now because, she said, “I didn’t want some tabloid to take the story and make it up. I wanted it to be in my own words.” The National Enquirer had run a story about Baxter being aboard a lesbian only Caribbean cruise ship with a female friend, whom Meredith identified as Nancy Locke, her partner of four years. The 62 year old Baxter, who famously starred on the nineteen eighties sitcom Family Ties, has been married three times, and has five children, but said that during all of her heterosexual marriages she never felt comfortable. “Anyone who’s a friend of mine, anyone who knows and cares about me knows. It’s no secret that I’m gay, but it has been to the greater world.”