PORTIA DE ROSSI - DE ROSSI 'OUTED' BY ALLY MCBEAL CO-STAR

Actress PORTIA DE ROSSI decided to go public with her sexuality after ALLY McBEAL castmate GREG GERMANN outed her in a New York bar.

The Australian blonde was still struggling to come to terms with the fact she was a lesbian when perceptive Germann, who played her boss on the legal series, guessed that she was hiding her sexuality.

She recalls, "I'd been on the show for about two months before we had to go to New York to do press, and Greg Germann and I were talking in the bar one night and he said, 'There's something about you I can't quite put my finger on... Are you gay?'

"Of course, I stammered and stuttered, and looked at the ground and went, 'Uh... uh... uh... maybe, I don't know. I think so. I'm not sure.'

"He looked at me and said, 'Have you struggled with it...?' That was so profound."

A couple of years after her heart to heart with Germann, De Rossi went public with her romance with RINGO STARR's stepdaughter FRANCESCA GREGORINI after the couple were caught by the paparazzi in 2001.

She recalls, "Every single family member, every person I worked with, everybody knew all at once. There was no turning back, and it was a relief."