Amanda Barrie tells Loose Women she couldn't come out as gay while working on Coronation Street

Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie has claimed she couldn't come out while she was on the soap because she feared being sacked.

The actress, 86, best known for her role as Alma Baldwin on the soap, appeared on Wednesday's Loose Women with her wife of seven years, writer Hilary Bonner, and discussed keeping her sexuality a secret for decades.

Amanda, who came out as bisexual in 2002, explained that only a few of her closest friends on the soap knew the truth about her sexual identity, including Helen Worth (Gail Platt) and Barbara Knox (Rita Tanner).

Candid: Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie has claimed she couldn't come out while she was on the soap because she feared being sacked

Speaking about being in the closet while she was on the soap, Amanda admitted she feared some co-stars would want to work with her if they knew her sexuality.

The actress played Alma on the soap from 1980 to 1981, and returned again in 1988 before Alma died of cancer in 2001.

'There was no camp of any kind at that time,' Amanda said.

'There was various people in charge of the show so, they call[ed] the tune. Do we call it homophobic? Call it what you like...  What people did was they sold you to the press who thought ''there's a story there''.

In the closet: The actress played Alma Baldwin on the soap from 1980 to 1981, and again from 1988 until 2001, and during that time kept her bisexuality a secret

Sweet: Amanda was a guest on the show alongside her wife, writer Hilary Bonner, who she married in 2014

'The press came and the very same people who would've done that would then say, ''I'm not going to work with someone who's gay.''

Amanda, who married Hilary in 2014, added that only a few select co-stars knew the truth about her sexuality.

She said: 'Nobody at Coronation Street knew but my very close friends Helen [Worth], Sue Nicholls and Barbara Knox.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Coronation Street for comment.

Open: Amanda, who came out as bisexual in 2002, explained that only a few of her closest friends on the soap knew the truth about her identity

Putting it out: She implied tht certain people who worked on the soap implied they wouldn't want to work with a cast member who was gay

During her guest appearance on Loose Women, Amanda discussed her wedding to partner Hilary in 2014, after the couple exchanged vows in London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

'I'd been with Hilary for years and we didn't want to get married before. I kept going, 'Oh my God, I can't bear one of those receptions. Ugh!' she said. 

'Then when I did pantomime I asked my Dandini [Cinderella's sidekick] where he got married and he said Drury Lane Theatre. And I went, 'Hilary! That's it, we're doing it!'

'It's my favourite theatre – the first place I went when I arrived in London at 13. I said my prayer on Drury Lane steps, 'Please can I be in the theatre?'

'I've never played there except a charity show, although that was my ambition. So we married there instead.'

Sweet: During her guest appearance on Loose Women, Amanda discussed her wedding to partner Hilary in 2014, after the couple exchanged vows in London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane

During her time on Corrie, Amanda was married to theatre director and actor Robin Hunter, whom she wed in 1967. The couple separated in the mid-1980s and were still legally married when Robin died from emphysema in 2004.

Although she was married to a man, rumours of Amanda's bisexuality continued to swirl, with Amanda telling the Conversation Street podcast: 'Every week I would come up to the office.

'They'd go, ''You're coming out.'' ''Am I?'' ''Yeah, they've got this thing on you.''

'I spent a fortune on solicitors because believe me if that had happened to me at that time they would not have kept me in Coronation Street and I will stand by that.

'Not because of them [the producers] but because of people, who shall be nameless, who would've said, 'I'm not working with her.''

Amanda went on to note that things are far different now due to the LGBT cast members on the soap such as Antony Cotton, Daniel Brocklebank and Rob Mallard.

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV. 

Back soon: Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV