'My parents disowned me but Esther Rantzen didn't'

When TV presenter Bill Buckley was disowned by his parents after being outed as gay by a national newspaper, Dame Esther Rantzen decided to step in, writing them a "beautiful" letter in defence of her colleague.

"She absolutely changed my life... I will be eternally grateful," he said. "We became great friends and we always stayed in touch."

Tributes are being paid to Dame Esther, who presented the BBC's That's Life! for 21 years and founded the children's charity Childline, following her death aged 86.

Buckley, from Sutton Coldfield, was 23 and working at Wolverhampton-based Express and Star when he joined her as a co-presenter on the television programme.

"She was possibly the toughest boss I ever had," he said.

"I thought some of the blokes on the Star were quite hard going, but, nothing compared with her.

"You see, she was first in the office every morning, putting the lights on, last out at night turning the lights off."

Buckley described how Dame Esther gave 100% on That's Life! and the show attracted more than 20 million viewers at its peak.

Speaking of a difficult period when he was outed by The Sun in the early 1980s, Buckley recalled the veteran broadcaster's kindness towards him and described her as the "Jewish mother to not only her own family, but to all her colleagues and to the nation".

"The Sun newspaper, when I'd been doing the job for about a year, decided to do a front page story. The story was that I was a gay man who also was presenting a television programme, and this was appalling and scandalous," Buckley explained.

"That was a very difficult time for me. She organised a rota of my colleagues for me to stay at night with because the press would be camped out on my doorstep."

In an editorial in 1998 the paper declared that it would change its approach to reporting on gay people in public life after recognising times had changed.

In an editorial at the time, the then editor said it would "not invade the privacy of gay people" and hoped "eventually that all gay people will feel free to come out".

Dame Esther, he explained, also took it upon herself to reach out to his parents on his behalf.

"My mum and dad disowned me at that point," he said.

"Without being asked, she wrote a beautiful letter to my mum and dad saying how great I was and what great contributions gay men had made to life around the world over the centuries and hoping that all would be well soon."

The presenter added it was a sad day, but his former colleague and friend had a "wonderful legacy".

"I look back with great fondness," he said.

"We became great friends and we always stayed in touch, and she stayed with me in my home down in Plymouth when I was working down there several times."

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