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STUART Dunne jokingly calls himself TV soaps' most dangerous Queen - for the actor who played Fair City's bad boy Billy is now Family Affairs' secret gay.
Stuart says he loved playing the two roles which are poles apart.
Just months ago, we saw him perform as demented drug dealer and violent pimp Billy Mehan.
Now he stars with fellow Irish actor Glen Mulhern as a gay lover with a dark and murky past.
TV3's Family Affairs, which regularly pulls in over 5 million viewers in the UK, is building a big following in Ireland,too.
And the gay love tangle story line, involving the two Irishmen, has soap fans hooked.
Stuart, a 40-year-old married dad of one, was delighted to get the chance to play a gay man.
He said: "People think I went from gruesome gangster to gay lover but in fact I did Family Affairs before I did Billy Mehan in Fair City, about a year and a half ago.
"I play Patrick, the secret gay lover of Conor Byrne, played by Glen Mulhern.
"Conor is staying with his brother Declan in the soap's fictional town of Charnham, having fled Ireland to get away from me.
"At home in Ireland I put up the front of a happily married man with children.
"No-one knows Conor and I are gay, never mind lovers - so Conor gets the shock of his life when I turn up claiming to be in town on business.