Maria Bello comes out as gay

Los Angeles: American actress Maria Bello has revealed that she is gay and has been in a longtime relationship with another women.

The 46 year-old `The Jane Austen Book Club` actress wrote a very personal article in the `Modern Love` section for The New York Times, published on November 29, according to Radar online. Bello recalled the moments of falling in love with her very close friend Clare and how she broke the news to her 12-year-old son Jack. "This was the moment I had been anticipating and dreading for months. I took a deep breath, knowing that my answer, and his response, would have an impact on our lives for a very long time. "I was with someone romantically and I hadn`t told him. I had become involved with a woman who was my best friend, and, as it happens, a person who is like a godmother to my son," she wrote. Bello, who starred in `Grown Ups` and `Prisoners`, began a relationship with her friend one year earlier, and she only realised her feelings for Clare when reading through some of her old journals. "I read about the handful of men and the one woman I had been in romantic relationships with, passages rife with pain and angst, It seemed when I was physically attracted to someone, I would put them in the box of being my `soul mate` and then be crushed when things didn`t turn out as I had hoped. "As I continued to look through photos, I came across a black-and-white one of my best friend and me taken on New Year`s Eve. We looked so happy, I couldn`t help but smile," she added.