John Barrowman - Personal Life

Personal Life

Barrowman is bidialectal. He learned an American accent after school children picked on his Scottish accent when he moved to the United States. His General American accent is often said to hint at, or is called, Mid-Atlantic. On The Friday Night Project, Barrowman stated that he still speaks in a Scottish accent when he is with his parents.

Barrowman met his partner Scott Gill during a production of Rope at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1993, after Gill came to see Barrowman in the play. The couple have houses in London and Cardiff. Barrowman and Gill entered into a civil partnership on December 27, 2006. They decline to call their relationship a marriage: "We're just going to sign the civil register. We're not going to have any ceremony because I'm not a supporter of the word 'marriage' for a gay partnership." Despite believing in God, Barrowman explains: "Why would I want a 'marriage' from a belief system that hates me?" A small ceremony was held in Cardiff with friends and family, with the cast of Torchwood and executive producer Russell T Davies as guests.

To this end, Barrowman is active in his community supporting the issues that matter to him most. He worked with Stonewall, a gay rights organisation in the UK, on the "Education for All" campaign against homophobia in the schools. In April 2008, the group placed posters on 600 billboards that read, "Some people are gay. Get over it!" Barrowman contributed his support to the project asking people to join him and "Help exterminate homophobia. Be bold. Be brave. Be a buddy, not a bully." That same month, Barrowman spoke at the Oxford Union about his career, the entertainment industry, and gay rights issues. The event was filmed for the BBC programme The Making of Me, in an episode exploring the science of homosexuality. He was voted Entertainer of the Year in 2006 by Stonewall and placed on the Out 100 list for 2008, an annual list of notable LGBT people compiled by Out magazine. In June 2010, Barrowman met with the current Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron as a representative of the LGBT community.

On November 30, 2008, Barrowman was asked during Radio 1's Switch programme about his habit of exposing himself during interviews, and did so on this occasion. Although the act was not seen (a show staff member had covered the webcam), the BBC and Barrowman subsequently apologised for any offence caused. He placed third in Broadcast magazine's "Hottest Commodity" poll in November 2006.

He was one of 48 British celebrities who signed a public notice warning voters against Conservative Party policy towards the BBC prior to the 2010 general election. In 2011, he released his own skin care line, entitled HIM.