Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati comes out as non-binary and changes pronouns

20 March 2025, 16:47 | Updated: 20 March 2025, 16:53

By Alice Dear

Shobna Gulati, who played Sunita Alahan on Coronation Street, has opened up on discovering the correct vocabulary for how they have felt their entire life.

Shobna Gulati, 58, has come out as non-binary after years of being both "extremely feminine" or "extremely masculine," changing their pronouns to she/they.

The former Coronation Street actor, who played Sunita Alahan in the ITV soap, revealed in a new interview with Kaye Adams that they hadn't known what non-binary meant, but soon realised that the word was the correct one to describe them.

This revelation came after they had a conversation with a non-binary sound engineer while on a job, who explained that they saw themselves as a person, adding that their gender was not important, which Shobna instantly related to.

Speaking on Kaye Adams' How To Be 60 podcast, Shobna explained: "I've become more happy describing myself as a person. What do people call it now? Non-binary. So, I suppose that's who I am."

They went on to add the while they had never had a word to describe this, they now do: "I've learnt from our younger generation what that might look like in terms of a word, because I know what it feels like in terms of being me."

Shobna went on: "All the way through my life I've never had the words for that and I've never managed to explain that and I suppose my immediate family have not really thought about it.

"They've just thought: 'Shobna is either extremely feminine or extremely masculine.' Because I was just accepted as a person who fell out of the tree and equally the person who put on all this make up and did a dance."

Speaking of the moment they first heard about the term non-binary, Shobna said: "The sound person said to me that they were non-binary and I said: 'what is that?' So, then they explained and I thought – 'well, I feel like that, but I didn't ever have that vocabulary'."

"They said that they saw themselves as a person and that the gender – the he or the she – wasn't important to who they are. And I thought: 'that's all I've ever thought'," they added.

Shobna went on to explain how they now felt "free" to "say it out loud," with people close to them having accepted who they are for a long time, with or without this explanation.

"I suppose when I'm asked now, I'll say it," they added.

The former soap actor went on to share the happy news that they are now in a relationship, telling Kaye: "I think I've loved this person all my life."

Shobna was previously married to architect Anshu Srivastava who they wed in at the age of 23-years-old in 1990. Four years later, the pair split before Shobna gave birth to a son, Akshay, who is now 30.

They also had a relationship with Emmerdale actor Gary Turner between 1999 to 2003, opening up about dating in the spotlight in the same interview: "I did have relationships, but then they were very public. It was sad for me, because I didn't feel that I got enough time to have a relationship and to have more children and have a private life, because it was so un-private and so exposed."

Shobna also shared on the podcast that they would be open to dating people of all genders, telling Kaye: "That is also something I'm looking at – what that means to me. So yes, I would go for a person absolutely, regardless of their gender."