Furious EastEnders star exposes secret bedroom scene rule for gay couples

Former EastEnders star John Partridge has revealed a shocking rule that applied to his bedroom scenes with Marc Elliott on the BBC soap. John is best known for playing Christian Clarke on the BBC soap from 2008 until 2012, returning briefly in 2015 and 2016.

Christian was introduced as the gay brother of Jane Beale and went on to find love with Syed Masood (Marc Elliott) - who was hiding his sexuality from his strict Muslim family. The pair eventually entered a civil partnership and left Walford together.

Nearly 10 years on, John appeared on Good Morning Britain this morning to speak about his new play The Code - a story highlighting the struggles faced by gay actors in 1950s Hollywood.

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Speaking about what TV is like today, the openly-gay actor revealed that there was a strict bedroom rule for his scenes as Christian with co-star Marc. "Funny thing is, when I was in EastEnders, when Mark Elliot and I would do any scenes in the bedroom, only one of us was allowed to have our shirt off because we were a gay couple," he said.

"Any other scenes, in any other soaps or any other TV dramas, heterosexual couples were allowed to show as much skin as they like. But we were not allowed to do that and that was recently."

When asked by Richard Madeley whether they tossed a coin over who would be topless, John laughed: "Needless to say that I was the one who had his top off. But that just goes to show that it is alive and well."

Speaking about his new play, John said that he plays LGBTQ+ icon Billy Haines - who became an interior designer after his Hollywood career ended over his sexuality. "In 1930, Billy Haines was the biggest box office drawer at MGN during that golden period of Hollywood," he said.

"By 1933, he was the first victim of cancel culture and that was for being gay. Other artists at the time like [Ramon] Novarro, [Rudolph] Valentino, Cary Grant were all posed with the same question - give up your gay lover or lose your career. They chose the former, he chose the latter."

John went onto say that he can't think of a gay leading man in Hollywood who is openly gay. "Why is that? What's the reason for that? I hate to say it but there's no other word for it - it's homophobia. You cannot be a leading man in Hollywood if you are gay."

"Actors, musicians today are actively encouraged to withhold their sexuality, withhold their identity in order to be successful."

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.

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