Jim Nabors Comes Out of the Closet, Reveals Marriage to Male Partner
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Frank Micelotta/Getty Images(HONOLULU) — Former Gomer Pyle: USMC star Jim Nabors has come out of the closet, revealing that he married his longtime male partner in Seattle two weeks ago.
The 82-year-old Nabors, a resident of Hawaii, tells Hawaii News Now he tied the knot with 64-year-old Stan Cadwallader on Jan. 15. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Washington state in December.
Nabors says, “I’m 82 and he’s in his 60s and so we’ve been together for 38 years and I’m not ashamed of people knowing, it’s just that it was such a personal thing, I didn’t tell anybody.”
While he’s only going public with his sexuality now, Nabors says he discussed it with co-workers and friends in the 1960s and 1970s.
“I’ve never made a huge secret of it at all,” he says.
Nabors originated the Gomer Pyle role on The Andy Griffith Show before he brought his bumbling Marine character to his own spin-off.
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