Actress Maria Bello Comes Out In NY Times 'Modern Love' Column

Maria Bello revealed she is in a lesbian relationship in this week's Modern Love column in The New York Times.

In an essay titled "Coming Out As A Modern Family," the "Prisoners" actress explained that despite past longterm relationships with men, a romantic relationship blossomed with her best friend, Clare.

Bello began the essay by remembering how her 12-year-old son, Jackson, asked her if she was romantically involved with anybody.

"He was right; I was with someone romantically and I hadn't told him," she wrote. "I had become involved with a woman who was my best friend, and, as it happens, a person who is like a godmother to my son."

Of her partner, Bello writes, "We had an immediate connection but didn't think of it as romantic or sexual. She was one of the most beautiful, charming, brilliant and funny people I had ever met, but it didn't occur to me, until that soul-searching moment in my garden, that we could perhaps choose to love each other romantically."

"What had I been waiting for all of these years?" continued Bello. "She is the person I like being with the most, the one with whom I am most myself."

She further explained, "My feelings for Clare aren't the same as the butterflies-in-the-stomach, angst-ridden love I have felt before [with men]; they are much deeper than that. As we grew closer, my desire for her grew stronger."

Bello says that now she and Clare have dinner almost every night with Jackson and his father, producer Dan McDermott.

And, as for her son's reaction?

The 12-year-old assured her, "Mom, love is love, whatever you are."