Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has opened her heart about her younger dreams of a "big white wedding" and a chap on her arm - and her struggle to come to terms with her gay sexuality.
She said she did not want to be gay and struggled to come to terms with it alongside her Christian faith.
But speaking in a remarkably open interview on BBC Radio Scotland's Stark Talk, the MSP told interviewer Edi Stark she she made a decision not to "live a lie".
Ms Davidson, 37, said: "I thought I was destined for the big white wedding and the chap on my arm and all the rest of it, and then it wasn't to be.
"I didn't come out until my mid twenties. I'd known for a few years before that.
"The biggest issue for me actually was the issues with my faith. To read Paul's Letter to various churches around the globe, talking about 'homosexual offenders'.. and talking about idolaters and adulterers and thieves being ranked together, was very difficult.
"It took time for me to come to some sort of peace with myself about it."
Ms Davidson now lives with partner Jen Wilson, from Wexford in Ireland, for whom she has publicly declared her love.
She said her speech on equal marriage in the Scottish Parliament was "one of the scariest things" she had done in politics.
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