Dale Winton's heartbreaking admission about his sexuality as he ...

Dale Winton made a devastating admission about his sexuality, saying 'if I could take a pill to make me straight, I would'.

The much loved TV presenter - who was best known for presenting the likes of Supermarket Sweep - chose to be ambiguous about his sexuality for years for fear of hurting his mum, who struggled with her mental health throughout her life.

A new documentary on Channel 5 tonight looked at his life, and in the new documentary, Dale's former agent Jan Kennedy explained more about the relationship he had with his mother about his sexuality.

She said: "Dale’s mother instinctively knew he was gay. There was no question, and tried to pull him away from it. If there was an operation for him not to be gay, that was how they thought in those days. She was born in a different time." Merrill Thomas, a fellow presenter, also opened up about Dale's heartbreaking admission to her about his sexuality.

"There was a point where he struggled with being gay; I remember him saying to me, if I could take a pill to make me straight, I’d take it. I thought then, how awful that he should feel if he could take a pill that would make him not be him anymore but someone that was more conforming to what people expect of him in life, he would do it," she said.

Dale revealed back in April 2018 that he first fell love at the age of 18, but kept it a secret from his mum. "But when I first fell in love, aged 18, I was struggling with a difficult home life: my mum, Sheree, was in a low phase and the fear that she would take her own life always haunted me. This was the early Seventies, and I'd just started working as a pub DJ. People were into drinking and having fun, and when one thing led to another that frequently meant sex," he said.

"I was doing what came naturally, shall we say, and discovered that I'd fallen in love with two people at the same time — one called Caroline, and one named John. My big concern was that Mum might take it badly. I so wanted to open my heart to her. But she was struggling with depression and I was walking on eggshells, trying to balance her ill health with my working life."

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