Sandi Toksvig receives regular death threats, and she needed police protection at her wedding after revealing she was gay.
Sandi Toksvig receives regular deaths threats
The 65-year-old 'QI' presenter revealed she is a lesbian in 1994, and still to this day she receives abuse over her sexuality.
In a talk at the Cambridge Union, Sandi, who has been in a civil partnership with Debbie Toksvig since 2007, said: "I don’t want to be too serious. I have had a lot of death threats.
"My wife and I, when we got married I had to have a close protection police officer beside me. It is still ongoing.
"But you can’t let that rule your life. I have been threatened twice since I have been in Cambridge in the last month.
"But also I’ve been hugged a lot. That is the risk you take. The modern world is weird. I don’t do social media of any kind as it is not real. It is not the way to have a conversation.”
Sandi has also spoken about having to hide her sexuality, and how "terrified" she felt at the time if the truth was revealed.
During an appearance on the BBC Radio 4 show 'Desert Island Discs' in 2015, she said: "We had to go into hiding for about two weeks and during that time, I was terrified that I had done a terrible thing to my children.
“I would give my life for my three children. It was truly, genuinely frightening.
“I went through some very dark times. People say, ‘when did you decide you were gay?’ and you think, ‘when did you decide you were heterosexual?’ It’s not a decision, it’s something you gradually realise about yourself.”
Sandi continues to fight for the LGBTQ+ community, and previously spoke out about the Church of England’s position on same-sex marriage.
Speaking to BBC News, the 'Extraordinary Escapes' presenter said: "I really never wanted this. There are lots of other things I'd rather be talking about.
"Trust me, being gay is just a normal life. And we want to be allowed to get on with it. But every time somebody condemns you, somebody somewhere in the LGBTQ+ community gets hurt. And I cannot sit by and let that happen.”
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