By alley - Feb 20, 2017, 3:13 PM ET

Retired racer Watts says he hid being gay during career

Former sports car racer Danny Watts has come out as gay, adding that he felt he could not acknowledge his sexuality during his career in motorsports.

The 37-year-old Briton told

Gay Times

he had felt he would "need to live in the closet if I wanted my motorsport career to go anywhere. There were enough gay jokes and homophobic slurs to go around, and I felt like if I lifted my head out of the trenches I'd be completely annihilated."

Watts, who admitted to being "one of the worst of the womanizers" in an attempt to conceal his homosexuality, was previously married and has a son.

"Eventually, something in me flipped, and I couldn't keep it in anymore," he told the GT. "I came out to my wife, who told me she'd known I was gay for ages and she was happy I'd finally come out.

"We started the process of an amicable divorce while working to create the least impact possible on our son's life."

After starting out in European single-seaters, teaming with future F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen in the Formula Renault ranks before advancing to F3 and A1 GP, Watts transitioned to sports cars and achieved considerable success at Le Mans with Strakka Racing, winning the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours in 2010. He retired at the end of last season and is now a professional driving coach.