The actor, whose matinee idol looks set female hearts aflutter as the handsome nurse-magnet medic in the 1960s TV series Dr. Kildare and as the sexy priest in love with a woman in the 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds, has finally revealed his sexual orientation. 

No longer the sex symbol he used to be, Chamberlain says he was tired of nursing his secret, sick of the habit of pretending. 

"I can talk about it now because I'm not afraid anymore," Chamberlain reveals in an interview airing Sunday on Dateline NBC. 

"I'm not a romantic leading man anymore so I don't need to nurture that public image anymore." 

Chamberlain has always refused to comment on his sexuality and reportedly claims that down the years tabloid press hints at his lifestyle only drove him further into the closet. But he's now talking about it here, there and everywhere, in person and in print. 

In true celebrity style, the 68-year-old actor is outing himself very publicly, in tandem with a promotional tour of his autobiography, Shattered Love, published next week by ReganBooks. 

Chamberlain lives in Hawaii with his partner of many years, whom he identifies only as Martin. (Other sources name him as Martin Rabbett, an actor, director, producer and Dr. Kildare look-alike, who played Chamberlain's brother in the 1982 movie Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold and has producer credits on many of Chamberlain's projects, including the 1990s Broadway, national and international tour of My Fair Lady and the 1999 miniseries Too Rich, The Secret Life of Doris Duke.) 

Besides appearing on Dateline, Chamberlain's featured in People magazine posing in the surf looking like a handsome senior citizen for an article that includes extracts from his memoir. He's also given an interview to the gay and lesbian magazine The Advocate and is making public appearances with gay and lesbian organizations during Gay Pride month this June. 

Chamberlain, born and raised in Beverly Hills, recognized as a teenager that he was attracted to boys not girls, but pretended otherwise. "When I grew up, being gay, being a sissy or anything like that, was verboten. I disliked myself intensely and feared this part of myself intensely and had to hide it," Chamberlain now confesses. 

His role as the clean cut James Kildare stamped him as a romantic leading man, an image further enhanced by such movie roles as the dashing Aramis in the 1974 version of The Three Musketeers and Cinderella's courtly Prince Charming in The Slipper and the Rose. However, his impact on the big screen never matched his small-screen appeal. His other TV successes included the role of the heroic English adventurer shipwrecked in feudal Japan in the historical drama Shogun and the heroic title role in Wallenberg: A Hero's Story. He tried to escape typecasting, appearing on stage in classical and modern dramas and musicals, but his efforts to broaden his range met with mixed response. In 1997 he starred in the movie A River Made to Drown In as a gay man dying of AIDS (news - web sites). 

Chamberlain says he feels good now that he's outed himself. "I love my life just the way it is," he says. "I'm proud of my relationship. I'm actually proud of myself."