The editor of one of the America’s most popular gay magazines has told of his secret relationship with a closeted professional baseball player.

Brendon Lemon, editor-in-chief of Out magazine, said: “For the past year and a half, I have been having an affair with a pro baseball player from a major-league East Coast franchise, not his team’s biggest star but a very recognisable media figure all the same.”

Lemon said that the affair is secret because his lover does not want to come out in public. He continued: “There is more than a little irony in the editor of the nation’s largest-circulation gay magazine skulking around with someone so deep in the closet.”

Lemon acknowledged that he would like his lover to come out. He remarked: “Tired of telling him this privately, and compromising my self-esteem, I’m now taking a risk and giving him this stronger hint. (I would never out him.)”

His comments may surprise baseball players and fans in the US.

Lemon believes that coming out will be a positive move. “With the exception of an occasional judgmental type, most of these straight guys don’t have a problem with homosexuality. Their prime concern is winning, not who you’re sleeping with.”