Harry Potter will have a love affair with Ron Weasley in a new spin-off series, sources close to J. K. Rowling have confirmed.
Miriam Margolyes has revealed that her parents once made her swear on a Bible not to sleep with women.
The 74-year-old actress is known for her role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, as well as for voice-acting and films including The Age of Innocence.
In a new interview with Audioboom, the actress – who has been with partner Heather Sutherland for nearly five decades – spoke candidly about her experiences growing up, and coming out to her parents in the 1960s.
She said: “People who were gay were pitied and ridiculed by my parents – they had no modern sense of people being allowed to be who they were.
“And I didn’t tell my parents, in fact, until I was something like 27. My mother was utterly appalled and disgusted… and she told my father, although I didn’t want her to.
“She told him, because they shared everything, and they made me swear on the Bible in the drawing room, in the most formal way, that I would never sleep with a woman again.
“Extraordinary really, as my father was a doctor and in many ways he was an enlightened man especially around racism. But about homosexuality… never!”
She added: “The curious thing is that I embraced homosexuality with as much joy and delight as I’ve embraced everything else in my life.
“It isn’t a problem for me – and I’m perfectly happy. I want everyone else to be perfectly happy about it.”
Of her partner, she said: “I have had a partner for nearly 50 years. We have been happy and loving and joyous and each other, and we still are.
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