Maria Bello has revealed she’s been in a long-term relationship with her best female friend in a column that was published in the New York Times.

In the heartfelt passage titled Coming Out as a Modern Family, Maria Bello, 46, shared the first time she opened up about her love life to her 12-year-old son Jackson.

At the time, her young son had been getting suspicious, and wondered if she wasn’t telling him something – and he was right.

“This was the moment I had been anticipating and dreading for months,” the actress wrote.

“I took a deep breath, knowing that my answer, and his response, would have an impact on our lives for a very long time.”

Maria Bello has revealed she’s been in a long-term relationship with her best female friend

“I was with someone romantically and I hadn’t told him,” Maria Bello admitted.

“I had become involved with a woman who was my best friend, and, as it happens, a person who is like a godmother to my son.”

One year earlier, Maria Bello decided to give a relationship with her best friend a try. The realization happened when she was reading through her old journals in her California garden.

“I read about the handful of men and the one woman I had been in romantic relationships with, passages rife with pain and angst. It seemed when I was physically attracted to someone, I would put them in the box of being my ‘soul mate’ and then be crushed when things didn’t turn out as I had hoped,” the actress wrote.

“As I continued to look through photos, I came across a black-and-white one of my best friend and me taken on New Year’s Eve. We looked so happy, I couldn’t help but smile,” Maria Bello added.

“It didn’t occur to me, until that soul-searching moment in my garden, that we could perhaps choose to love each other romantically.”