'Facts of Life' Star: My Husband Was Gay

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Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes star Charlotte Rae is revealing that after 25 years of marriage to composer John Strauss, he confessed to her that he was gay.

The actress, best known for her character Mrs. Edna Garrett, says that she ended things with Strauss in 1975 upon learning of his homosexuality shortly after they had moved to Los Angeles. The couple wed in 1950 and had two sons together.

"First came the shock of what he had done behind my back, then the sting of being deceived for years," wrote Rae, 86, in her new memoir, The Facts of My Life, obtained by the New York Post. "All I could feel was the betrayal and, worse than that, my shame."

Adding of her husband's confession, "John's secret confirmed my feelings of inferiority. That I was less than a woman...That I didn't deserve to be loved and valued."

Strauss passed away in 2011.