Broadcaster and actor Christopher Biggins has claimed that bisexuals use their sexuality as a way of hiding that they are gay.

The former I’m a Celebrity winner told The Big Issue that bisexuals are not a “real person” due to their “double lives”.

He said: “I think the people who fear homosexuality most are the ones who could be gay. The world is full of bisexuals because that’s the way they want to do it. What do they do? They ruin a woman’s life.

“It’s so wrong, because you’re not owning up to what you are. You lead a double life so how can you be a real person?”

“I wish it had been easier being gay when I was younger,” he said. “There were pressures then. I was doing lots of children’s TV, like Rentaghost, and if you were gay in those days you were considered to be a paedophile.

“I didn’t really understand my sexuality when I was a teenager. I knew I had vague inclinations towards other men but it wasn’t a big thing.”

The 65-year-old added: “Then in my early twenties I met a girl and married her, because I thought that was the thing to do. Ridiculous.

“I hadn’t thought it through and of course it didn’t work. Now I’ve happily been with Neil [Sinclair, civil partner] for 21 years and that’s how it should have been.”

Biggins was married to Australian actress Beatrice Norbury from 1971 to 1974. He formed a civil partnership with his partner, Neil Sinclair, on 30 December 2006 at Hackney Register Office.