Tuc Watkins, a longtime star of the soap opera One Life to Live, has played both straight and gay characters during his career.

But until late last month, he had never felt compelled to disclose publicly that he is gay.

‘Here’s the deal, some actors are genuinely private people,’ he tells Entertainment Tonight. ‘When straight actors are private, it’s perceived as having integrity. When gay actors are private, it’s perceived as shame. It’s a double standard.’

The 46-year-od actor played gay roles on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, on Showtime’s Beggars and Choosers in the film I Think I Do and on the web series Where the Bears Are. But his character on One Life to Live is straight as many of of other characters have been.

Watkins says becoming the father of twins four-and-a-half months ago had everything to do with his decision to go public in appearances on Marie Osmond’s Hallmark Channel talk show and on ABC’s The Chew.

‘I’m just so excited to be a dad, I really couldn’t help but want to talk about that,’ he says.

His fans quickly took notice.

‘I’ve had a Facebook account for a long time, but I’ve never had so many people want to be my friend [laughs]. It’s all been really nice,’ the actor said. ‘My dad has a Google alert on my name and we’ve always had this deal where, if there’s something nice, he’s allowed to send it to me. He’s my filter. So anything that might be negative gets filtered out by my dad, so I’ve gotten nothing but a wonderful response.’