After years of playing wife and mother Elyse Keaton on Family Ties, Meredith Baxter (formerly Meredith Baxter-Birney) made a big reveal on the Today show this morning: she’s a lesbian.

The news comes following reports by the National Enquirer that the actress was recently spotted on a cruise sponsored by a lesbian travel company. Pictures of the 62-year-old and her partner of four years, Nancy Locke, were also posted on Perez Hilton yesterday.

Meredith, who has been divorced three times, said her self-discovery didn’t come until fairly recently. “I am a lesbian and it was a later-in-life recognition of that fact,” she claimed. “Some people were saying ‘Were you living a lie?’ And, you know, the truth is — not at all. This has only been like the past seven years.”

Although Baxter claims she and Nancy live “very out lives in Los Angeles,” she admits she wasn’t entirely comfortable about having to discuss her life with the world. “I’ve always lived a very private life. To come out and disclose stuff is very antithetical to who I am,” the actress explained. But media reports inspired Meredith to make her relationship public—and to do it in her own words. “I had to reach a level of comfort because it wasn’t fair to push [Nancy] back into secrecy,” she added.

The mother of five now hopes that her declaration will help change voters’ minds. “It’s been brought to my attention that this is a political act, even though that’s not what it feels like to me,” she said. “If anybody knows someone who’s gay or lesbian … they’re less likely to vote against them to take away their rights. I can be that lesbian you know now …”