Editing Alan Bates (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Headshot of the actor Sir Alan Bates (1960s).jpg|thumb|left|Bates in the mid-1960s.]]
Bates was married to actress Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death from a heart attack in 1992, although they had separated many years earlier.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/features/famous_derby/alan_bates.shtml|title=BBC – Derby – Around Derby – Famous Derby – Sir Alan Bates biography}}</ref> They had twin sons, born in November 1970: the actors [[Benedick Bates]] and Tristan Bates. Tristan died following an asthma attack in Tokyo in 1990.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3666144/The-minute-they-got-close-he-ran.html | work=The Daily Telegraph| location=London | title= The Minute They Got Close, He Ran |last=Lewis |first=Roger |date=28 June 2007 | access-date=12 April 2019}}</ref>

Bates had numerous gay relationships, including those with actor [[Nickolas Grace]] <!-- See the Peter Wyngarde article before adding him. -->and Olympic skater [[John Curry]], as detailed in Donald Spoto's [[authorised biography]] ''Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.queerty.com/new-bio-outs-late-great-gay-alan-bates-20070521|title=New Bio Outs Late, Great, "Gay" Alan Bates / Queerty|last=Belonsky|first=Andrew|date=21 May 2007|website=[[Queerty]]|access-date=25 September 2019}}</ref> Spoto characterised Bates's sexuality as ambiguous, and said, "he loved women but enjoyed his closest relationships with men".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jun/16/featuresreviews.guardianreview8|title=Review: Otherwise Engaged by Donald Spoto|last=Coveney|first=Michael|date=16 June 2007|work=The Guardian|access-date=25 September 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Even after homosexuality was partially decriminalised in England in 1967,<ref name=Act>{{cite web|author=Albany Trust Homosexual Law Reform Society|title=GB 0097 HCA/Albany Trust|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3213&inst_id=1|work=AIM25|publisher=British Library of Political and Economic Science|year=1984|access-date=10 April 2008|archive-date=23 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023034225/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3213&inst_id=1|url-status=dead}}</ref> Bates rigorously avoided interviews and questions about his personal life, and even denied to his male lovers that there was a homosexual component in his nature.<ref name=":0" /> Throughout his life, Bates sought to be regarded as charming and charismatic, or at least as a man who, as an actor, could appear attractive to and attracted by women. He also chose some roles with an aspect of homosexuality or bisexuality,<ref name=":0" /> including the role of Rupert in the 1969 film ''[[Women in Love (film)|Women in Love]]'' and the role of Frank in the 1988 film ''[[We Think the World of You]]''.

In the later years of his life, Bates had a relationship with the Welsh actress [[Angharad Rees]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9571643/Downton-Abbey-creator-Julian-Fellowes-leads-tributes-to-Angharad-Rees.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes leads tributes to Angharad Rees | date=28 September 2012}}</ref>