Sir Ian McKellen has split from boyfriend Oscar Conlon-Morrey after a year together. The Lord of The Rings star, 84, met the much younger actor, 30, while playing mother and son in smash hit pantomime Mother Goose in late 2022.
Things appeared to develop quickly between the pair with Oscar declaring Ian ‘the new love of his life’. However the two have now gone their separate ways and calling quits on their budding romance. MailOnline have contacted Sir Ian and Oscar’s representatives for comment. It comes one well-known actor who has shared the stage with Sir Ian shared his doubts over the relationship.
He told MailOnline: ‘Oscar has been telling friends and family of his big plans with McKellen. He’s even said he thinks they’ll get engaged,’ But he cautioned: ‘McKellen hasn’t had a boyfriend in 20 years. He is really not a marriage man. He doesn’t want a man living in his home. He enjoys having someone when he is on tour.’
‘McKellen gets infatuated; then as quickly as he is into them, he’s fallen out with them. There is no way when he is out of the bubble of doing this panto that he is going to have this guy with him in East London, rattling around,’ he added.
The news comes after Ian revealed he never got the chance to tell his parents he was gay as they both passed away when he was young. The actor has been open to the public about his sexuality since 1988 but sadly lost his mother Margery at age 12 and his father Denis when he was 22.
When asked by Jonathan Ross if he was close with his parents, Ian said: ‘As close as you can be when your mother dies at 12 and dad dies when you’re 22. ‘Never told them I was gay for example. Didn’t see me do any of my best work. But I remember them with nothing but pleasure.’
Ian was born in Burnley and later moved to Bolton where he was raised in a religious household. The actor discussed coming out in his 40s, saying it made his relationships with his family and friends much better as he wasn’t ‘hiding anymore’.
He said: ‘I never stopped talking about it since. Made up for lost time. It changes your life utterly… I discovered myself. And everything was better. ‘My relationships with my family, with friends, with strangers, and my work got better as I wasn’t hiding anymore.
‘Up to that point, my acting had really been about disguise and then when I could feel I was myself, it came about telling the truth, which was much more interesting.’
Asked if he gives advice about coming out he added: ‘I keep giving them advice and saying, “Oh come on, join the modern world, it’s not the same. You won’t get put in prison.” ‘That was my dilemma when I was a kid, if I’d said I was openly gay I could have risked being prosecuted. That’s not true anymore. We have very good laws in this country.’