Ian Harvey (2 children)

Lt. Col. Ian Douglas Harvey (1914-1987) was a Conservative MP and minister until involved in a minor sex scandal. He was a man of great charm and in later life he became Vice-President of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. He married and with his wife he had two daughters.

Elizabeth de Gramont (2 children)

Elizabeth de Gramont, Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre (1875-1954) was a writer and diarist and the long-term lover of the Paris-based American lesbian writer and apologist, Natalie Barney. She was openly bisexual and married to Philibert, Duke of Clermont-Tonnerre, with whom she had two daughters.

Leonard Bernstein (3 children)

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) was an American conductor and composer, most memorably of "West Side Story". He was a lifelong homosexual and openly so in his mature years. He married and with his wife, Felicia, he had two sons and a daughter.

Konstantin Romanov (9 children)

Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia (1858-1915) was a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I. He was a poet and writer using the pen name "KR". The posthumous publication of parts of his diaries revealed his life-long bisexuality. He married Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg and they had five sons and four daughters.

Marlon Brando (8 children)

Marlon Brando (1924-2004) is often considered to be the greatest USA film star ever. He was quite open about his relationships and sex with men. David Niven records having found him with Laurence Olivier (see below). Brando fathered eight children by different mothers and adopted three others

Alan Bates (2 children)

Sir Alan Bates (1934-2003), was an English actor, who was much admired for his rugged looks and his important performances in important films such as "Women in Love" and "The Go-Between". He was bisexual all his life, though he married and had two sons.

Alec Guinness (1 child)

Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000) was perhaps the best-loved actor of his generation. His homosexual life is well documented. He married and had a son.

Michael Redgrave (3 children)

Sir Michael Redgrave (1908-1985) was a film and stage actor and the father of three actors, Vanessa, Corin and Lynn Redgrave. His wife knew of his homosexuality before their marriage; his son Corin has spoken of it. His long-term lover, Bob Michell, also later married and named one of his children Michael, after Redgrave.

Emlyn Williams (2 children)

Emlyn Williams (1905-1987) was an actor and playwright. He wrote about his homosexuality in his autobiography. He married and had two sons.

Laurence Olivier (4 children)

Laurence Olivier, Lord Olivier of Brighton (1907-1989) was the most famous actor of his generation. He twice married, firstly Vivien Leigh, with whom he had a son, and then Joan Plowright with whom he had three more children. His bisexuality was known in the theatre world, and although denied by his son, his second wife was well aware of it and mentioned it herself.

King Edward II (5 children)

King Edward II of England (1284-1327) was notoriously homosexual during his lifetime. He was deposed by his wife, Isabella of France and was barbarously killed, possibly upon her orders. They had four children, including King Edward III, and he also fathered at least one illegitimate son.

"Chips" Channon (1 child)

Sir Henry ("Chips") Channon (1897-1958), was an American-born British politician, socialite and diarist. His homosexual affairs were not hidden and are well documented. He married Lady Honor Guinness and they had one son.

Malcolm X (6 children)

Malcolm X (1925-1965), who was born Malcolm Little, was a civil rights campaigner who was killed by an assassin. As a young man he regularly took part in various forms of homosexual behaviour, supposedly for economic reasons. There is evidence that he had sustained relationships with some people of his own sex. He married and had six daughters.

Julius Caesar (2 children)

Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC-44BC) is included here as he was known to be bisexual during his lifetime and there is ample contemporary evidence. Some modern commentators claim that he was the victim of denigration by his enemies, which tells us more about the commentators than it does about Caesar. There are many different sources for the rumours and there seem to be no serious reasons for believing that Caesar was not like many other men and women. He had a daughter by his first wife and a son by the Queen of Egypt.

Joerg Haider (2 children)

Joerg Haider (1950-2008) was the leader of a right-wing Austrian political party. His homosexuality seems to have been well-known in Austrian circles, and after his death in a car accident, which happened following his visit to a gay club, his close friend and political associate, Stefan Petzner, spoke about their close relationship. He was married and had two daughters.

Siegfried Sassoon (1 child)

Sigfried Sassoon (1886-1967) was a poet and author. He won the Military Cross for outstanding gallantry during WW1, although he was one of the "War Poets" who criticised war in their poetry. He was a lover of Prince Philip of Hesse (see below), and of many other men, including the aesthete, Stephen Tennant. Sassoon married Hester Gatty and they had one son, George.

John Addington Symonds (4 children)

John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) was a poet, historian and critic and an early apologist of "male love" or homosexuality. In his late life he invariably travelled with his male gondolier-companion, Angelo Fusato. He married Janet North and they had four daughters.

Prince George, Duke of Kent (3 children)

George Windsor, Duke of Kent (1902-1942), was the youngest brother of King George VI. He enjoyed a full social life and had many sexual relationships with both men and women. With his wife, Princess Marina of Greece, he had two sons and a daughter.

Norman Douglas (2 children)

Norman Douglas (1868-1952) is best known for his 1917 novel "South Wind". He was a prolific writer but lived much of his life as an ex-patriot in Italy, where he died. He is buried in Capri. He married Elizabeth FitzGibbon and they had two children. His homosexuality was well recorded; he made no secret of it.

David Garnett (6 children)

David Garnett (1892-1981) was a British writer and publisher. Although bisexual, he was primarily attracted to women throughout his life but had some noteable relationships with men (e.g. Duncan Grant below). He married twice and had two sons by his first wife, Rachel Marshall, and four daughters by his second wife, Angelica Bell.

Duncan Grant (1 child)

Duncan Grant (1885-1978) was a painter connected to the Bloomsbury Group. He was openly homosexual but for most of his life shared a house and his life in Sussex (Charleston) with another painter, Vanessa Bell, the sister of Virginia Woolf. He was the lover of John Maynard Keynes, the economist. He fathered one child with Vanessa Bell, Angelica Bell, who later married David Garnett, who had been one of her father's lovers (see above). The painting is a self portrait.

King James I of England (7 children)

James Stuart (1566-1625) was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and was King James VI of Scotland. He became King of England after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603. It seems the cry went up in London: "The King is dead! Long live the Queen!". There can be little doubt that James was bisexual all his life. His male "favourites" were notorious and he had adjoining bedchambers with them. He married Anne of Denmark and had at least seven children with her. The British royal family descends from James I.

The Duchess of Medina Sidonia (3 children)

Dona Luisa Isabel Alvarez de Toledo y Maura, Duchess of Medina-Sidonia (1936-2008), was the 21st holder of the title. She was known as the "Red Duchess" for her opposition to General Franco, although she was not a communist. She married Leonardo Gonzales de Gregorio Marti in 1955. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. On her death bed she "married" Liliana Maria Dahlmann, who had been her "secretary" for 20 years.

Una, Lady Troubridge (1 child)

Una Troubridge (1887-1963) was the writer, translator and sculptress wife of Admiral Sir Ernest Thomas Troubridge and they had one daughter, Andrea. However, she is best known for her long-term relationship with the lesbian novelist, Radclyffe Hall. In the photograph Hall, known as "John" is standing, while Una, or "Vincenzo", is seated.

John Cheever (3 children)

John Cheever (1912-1982) was an American novelist and writer of short stories. He was married and had three children, one of whom, his daughter Susan Cheever, wrote candidly about her father's bisexuality.

Prince Philipp of Hesse (4 children)

Prince and Landgrave Philipp of Hesse (1896-1980) was married to Princess Mafalda of Italy. They had four children. After having been a high-ranking Nazi officer, he finished his life in Rome as an interior designer. Philipp was known to be bisexual and had a number of relationships with men, amongst whom the English poet, Siegfried Sassoon. This unfortunate photograph of him is currently the only one available.

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (4 children)

Ferdinand I, Tsar of Bulgaria (1861.1948) married Princess Louise of Bourbon-Parma and they had four children, two sons and two daughters. His bisexuality was well-known throughout his life.

7th Earl Beauchamp (7 children)

William Lygon, the 7th Earl Beauchamp (1872-1938) was a married man with seven children: three sons and four daughters by his wife, Lady Lettice Grosvenor. Her brother reported William's homosexuality to the King and Queen and he had to leave the UK and go into exile on the continent. His daughters, who were close to him, used to tell the young men who were visiting them for week-ends that they should lock their bedroom doors at night because their father would try to enter their rooms.

Lord Byron (2 children)

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), was the most famous poet of his generation, at home and abroad. "Mad, bad and dangerous to know", he was loved by and loved both women and men. A life-long bisexual, his last love poems were addressed to a young Greek. He had two children: as a married man he had one legitimate daughter with his wife; and he had another outside of matrimony, with Claire Clairmont, the half-sister of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Simon Raven (1 child)

Another English writer, Simon Raven (1927-2001) was expelled from school for homosexual activities. In 1951 he married Susan Kilner and they had one son, Adam. He was bisexual all of his life with a definite preference for his own sex. The picture here is from a reprint of his biography and the caricature of Raven by Marc Boxer successfully conveys this unashamed roué.

William Somerset Maugham (1 child)

Maugham (1874-1965) was one of the most popular novelists and writers of his day. He married Syrie, who became an influential interior designer. Their one daughter was Liza Maugham. Maugham had two long-term relationships with men, firstly Gerald Haxton (1892-1944) his lover and companion for 30 years, and then Alan Searle, who stayed with him until his death.

Vita Sackville-West (2 children)

She was the wife of Sir Harold Nicolson. Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) was a well-known writer and gardener. She had two sons by Harold Nicolson (see below). She also took famous women for her lovers. Especially noteable were Violet Trefusis, the socialite, writer and great aunt of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Virginia Woolf, who wrote "Orlando" as a love offering for Vita.

Sir Harold Nicolson (2 children)

Harold Nicolson (1886-1968) was a politician, diplomat and diarist. He married the Hon. Victoria Sackville-West (see above) and they had two children, Nigel and Benedict, although he had regular relationships with his own sex.

William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey (2 children)

Another writer, William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey (1760-1844) married and had two children, Margaret and Susan. Like Oscar Wilde and some others in this list, he left Britain because of a homosexual scandal. His descendants include Prince Albert of Monaco, the late Egon von Furstenberg, the late Princess Orietta Doria-Pamphilj and many noble and ordinary families of the world.

Oscar Wilde (2 children)

Our first mention is of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) because since his death he has been considered the personification of the homosexual. He was married and had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. His descendants are still living.