National Coming Out Day: 5 Celebs Who Came Out After Divorce

Coming out of the closet after years of marriage isn't easy. But a number of celebrities have bravely made the leap, opening up about their sexuality after being in a committed heterosexual relationships for years.

To celebrate National Coming Out Day, we've assembled a list of five celebs who came out after their marriages ended. Click through to see who they are.

• Wanda Sykes

  Comedian Wanda Sykes was married to record producer <a href="http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2009/05/wanda-sykes-and-wife-welcome-twins.html">Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998</a>. In November 2008, Sykes publicly <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-02/entertainment/piers.morgan.wanda.sykes_1_wanda-sykes-gay-event-wiener?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ">came out as a lesbian while speaking at an anti-Prop 8 rally</a> in Las Vegas. One month prior, <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-02/entertainment/piers.morgan.wanda.sykes_1_wanda-sykes-gay-event-wiener?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ">Sykes had married her wife, Alex</a>, with whom she has <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20278746,00.html">has two children</a>.

• Portia de Rossi

  Before finding love with Ellen DeGeneres, actress Portia de Rossi was <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/photos/lesbians-who-used-to-be-straight/covergirl-cosmetics-50th-anniversary-party-arrivals-2/">married to documentary filmmaker Mel Metcalfe</a> from 1996 to 1999. In her 2011 memoir, DeRossi admitted that she married Metcalfe in in an effort to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1348817/Portia-Rossi-Ex-husband-dumped-ran-brothers-wife.html">obtain a green card</a>. After divorcing in 1999, Portia <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/photos/lesbians-who-used-to-be-straight/covergirl-cosmetics-50th-anniversary-party-arrivals-2/">dated singer Francesca Gregorini for four years</a> before falling for and <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20219790,00.html">marrying Ellen DeGeneres</a> in August 2008.

• Peter Marc Jacobson

  Writer and producer Peter Marc Jacobson revealed that he was gay two years after he and actress Fran Drescher <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/15/fran-drescher-happily-div_n_877170.html">ended their 21-year marriage.</a> The former couple are now friends -- they even <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/fran-dreschers-happily-divorced_n_835851.html">set each other up on dates </a>-- and co-produce the loosely <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/fran-drescher-happily-divorced-season-premiere_n_1327512.html">autobiographical TV Land sitcom, "Happily Divorced."</a>

• Kelly McGillis

  Kelly McGillis, who starred alongside Tom Cruise in "Top Gun," revealed she was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1175410/Im-lesbian-declares-Top-Gun-siren-Kelly-McGillis.html">gay on SheWired.com</a> in April 2009. McGillis, who was married twice to men and has two daughters, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/fashion/weddings/26VOWS.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">wed her partner Melanie Leis</a> in a New Jersey civil union ceremony in September 2010.

• Meredith Baxter

  Meredith Baxter, best known for playing Elyse Keaton on the '80s sitcom "Family Ties," was married three times before she <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34228231/ns/today-entertainment/t/family-ties-mom-i-am-lesbian/">came out of the closet in December 2009</a>. "Some people would say, well, you're living a lie and, you know, the truth is -- not at all. This has only been for the past seven years," the actress <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34228231/ns/today-entertainment/t/family-ties-mom-i-am-lesbian/">told Matt Lauer on the "Today" show</a> that same month.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/national-coming-out-day-5_n_1959471.html

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