The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus has denounced claims that he did not want his character to be gay as “total bs.”

Reports have circled that Reedus begged producers not to make the character Daryl Dixon gay because he feared losing his female fans.

GLOBE Magazine among others reported: “He fears the same-sex shocker would hurt ratings by disappointing his legions of female fans.

“Norman isn’t anti-gay in his personal life, but he’s become one of the biggest male sex symbols in television.

“He gets thousands of fan letters from women each week – along with dozens of marriage proposals.”

Reedus blasted these rumours on Twitter this week, writing:

This is total bs by the way https://t.co/7hiScbUeSh — norman reedus (@wwwbigbaldhead) October 27, 2014

Last month it was reported that Reedus had been playing Daryl as “prison gay.”

He said: “He’s definitely not a ladies’ man or thinks of himself as having enough confidence to be that type of person.”