Congratulations are in order for a major TV icon! Jim Nabors — who spent seven years playing gas station attendent-turned-soldier Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.— said “I do” to Stan Cadwallader, his partner of 38 years, Jan. 15 in Seattle, Wash.

“I’m 82 and he’s in his ’60s and so we’ve been together for 38 years,” Jim tells Hawaii News Now. “I’m not ashamed of people knowing, it’s just that it was such a personal thing, I didn’t tell anybody. I’m very happy that I’ve had a partner of 38 years, and I feel very blessed. And what can I tell you? I’m just very happy.”

Jim says he first met Stan in 1975, when Stan was a firefighter in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Jim’s Thoughts On Being A Gay Celebrity

Jim’s sexuality has long since been a source of speculation in Hollywood — he was rumored to have been involved with fellow actor Rock Hudson back in the ’70s — and now, he’s finally set the record straight.

(So to speak.)

“I haven’t ever made a public spectacle of it,” Jim says. “I’ve known since I was a child, so, come on. It’s not that kind of a thing. I’ve never made a huge secret of it at all. … This is really no big deal.”

Jim also has a few words of advice for anyone struggling to come out:

“You don’t ever understand [why] people look down on you, or say cruel things to you about that sort of thing,” he says. “Nevertheless, that’s just life, and you just have to get above it.”

— Andy Swift

Follow @AndySwift

Hawaii News Now

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3. Bristol Palin Is A Huge Hypocrite For Opposing Gay Marriage