New York City, Dec 2 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The hippie mom in the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties” Meredith Baxter has finally come out of the closet and has revealed that she is a lesbian, and she has been keeping her sexual preference a secret for seven years. She is currently in a relationship with Nancy Locke.

“I am a lesbian and it was a later-in-life recognition,” Baxter said on NBC’s “Today” show. “Some people would say, well, you’re living a lie and, you know, the truth is — not at all. This has only been for the past seven years.”

Meredith Baxter is 62-years-old and has been married and also divorced and that too a record 3 times. She finally got the guts to reveal and accept her sexual preferences in front of the media because she was spotted “traveling with a female friend” on a Caribbean cruise sponsored by lesbian travel company Sweet. This report came out in the November issue of the National Enquirer. After this report, she was left with no option but to come out with the truth.

She says that she wasn’t like this from the beginning, and this awakening happened because she got involved sexually with a female and then realized her sexual leanings. When this happened, then she also realized that this was why she had troubles in her relationships with the men in her life.

Meredith Baxter revealed that she is four years into a relationship with Nancy Locke, who is a contractor she met through mutual friends. When Baxter told her five children, she was surprised to learn that her children already knew that she was a lesbian.