Michael Gove: I'm not gay, despite the rumours
Lord Gove said people 'like the idea that anyone in public life will have a kink or secret of some kind', but that the rumours he was gay were untrue.
Asked by The Times whether he had ever kissed a boy, the former Tory Cabinet minister said: 'No… except my son', adding that he found the speculation 'hilarious'.
It comes after Sarah Vine, his ex-wife, wrote a memoir that included details of her relationship with him and her experience in Conservative Party circles.
The couple were close friends with David Cameron, the former prime minister, and his wife Samantha in the 2000s and 2010s, until they fell out during Brexit.
Lord Gove and Ms Vine split up in 2021 after 20 years of marriage. They have two children together.
Ms Vine has said there was 'so much gossip' about her ex-husband's sexuality, because of his 'quite camp' persona and his several gay friends and colleagues.
He also lived in a flat in Mayfair with Ivan Massow, a multi-millionaire financier and gay rights campaigner, and Nick Boles, a former Conservative MP, which attracted further speculation.
Asked about the rumours, the former levelling up secretary said: 'I also think people like the idea anyone in public life will have a kink or secret of some kind.
'So everyone from Peter Lilley to the current PM has had rumours spread about them, and this was one that latched on to me. I find it hilarious. But any protestation sounds like you're trying to cover something up.'
Since splitting with Ms Vine, Lord Gove has started dating Dr Lola Salem, a 32-year-old music lecturer at Oxford University. A mutual friend of the pair told The Times that Dr Salem is 'even more combative and Right-wing than Michael'.
The relationship moved into the public domain after a photograph was taken of Lord Gove and Dr Salem kissing in the J Sheekey fish restaurant in London.
Addressing the incident, he said: 'In my mind, the street is sniper's alley. But in a restaurant, you expect a certain amount of politeness.'
Before getting together with Dr Salem, the former politician told The Times he had tried using the Bumble dating app.
He told how he had to prove to one woman on the app that it really was him behind the profile, taking a photograph of himself holding up the day's newspaper.
Lord Gove described the experience as 'fascinating… the pictures people choose, the descriptions they give themselves'.
The former Cabinet minister had dated Tory peer Baroness Finn, then known as Simone Kubes, and the historian Amanda Foreman before marrying Ms Vine.
Lord Gove is now the editor of The Spectator magazine, having worked as a journalist before he entered politics.
He has cut a divisive figure in the Conservative Party over his career, which spanned five prime ministers. Lord Cameron described him in his autobiography as 'mendacious' after falling out with him over Brexit, and said that in him 'one quality shone through – disloyalty'.
Asked about his friendship with Lord Cameron and whether it was over, Lord Gove told The Times: 'Impaired, which is sort of a euphemism. Not the same, and I can completely understand why.
'He felt he'd earned the right, as the captain, to expect members of the team to recognise it was better for us all to hang together.'
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