Actress Miriam Margolyes Says She Lost 34 Friends To HIV

Miriam Margolyes, a British-Australian actress, has spoken out about her grief over the loss of 34 friends to HIV.

The actress, who is the cover heroine of Vogue’s Pride edition, told the magazine, “I counted [the number] one day because there were so many people who had died and they were all beautiful, talented, funny, gifted boys.”

Miriam, 82, joined the Project Angel Food charity while living in Los Angeles, which served meals to those who were too sick to leave their homes.

She said: “I didn’t always know their names. I just knew their addresses. They were on their own all day. These tiny hunted faces looking out the window. It was awful.”

The lesbian author and actress came out to her parents in 1966, when it was still illegal to be gay.

Miriam is currently in a civil partnership with her 54-year spouse, Heather Sutherland, an Australian historian and former professor at an Amsterdam university.

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They met while working on a BBC radio drama in 1967.

Miriam has stated that the concept of calling Heather her ‘wife’ makes her feel uneasy and that living apart has been beneficial to them.

She said: “We were able to lead our lives without diminishing them. I didn’t want her to have to give up anything. And I didn’t want to give up anything. I wanted my cake and I wanted to eat it too. And so far, it’s worked.”

Miriam and Heather entered into a civil partnership primarily for legal protection.

She stated she’s never been a fan of Pride marches, admitting: “I actually find lesbians a bit on the boring side, because they’re a bit heavy-handed about it all.”

The Call The Midwife star has just returned from Tuscany, where she has been residing with Heather in her farmhouse since December.

She previously stated that she visited her partner – whom she described as ‘private and reserved’ – eight times in a year.

Miriam admits she regrets coming out to her parents, Joseph, a doctor, and Ruth, a property developer, even though she has never felt ashamed of her sexual orientation.

Despite the fact that the law said otherwise at the time, Miriam claims she knew her sexuality wasn’t illegal since “it was me. I couldn’t be a criminal.”

Her parents’ reaction, she claims, was devastating, and her mother made her promise on the Torah that she would never have sex with another woman again.

She stated that coming out ‘hurt them’ and that she ‘doesn’t want to hurt people.’

Her mother suffered a terrible stroke months later, and she cared for her until she died, believing that the discovery of her sexuality had contributed to her mother’s illness.

In her book, Miriam wrote: “I always believed that my coming out in some way caused it.

“It was a horrendous time and I was very unhappy. I knew I couldn’t change what I was; I should not have told them.”

Miriam’s father died in 1995, at the age of 96. She has stated that she does not believe any of them ever embraced her sexuality, and that this has never prevented her from loving them.