The broadcaster who reversed his stance on gay marriage tells Peter Stanford about the personal consequences

British-born Michael Coren is a familiar face in his adopted home of Canada through his newspaper columns and his television and radio shows – most recently the nightly The Arena on Sun News, which he describes as “conservative Canada’s version of Fox News”. He is, he confesses, albeit a little coyly, someone who in Canada is recognised on the street. “People come up and say hello to me.”

Outside Westminster Cathedral, though, Coren turns no heads. It is clearly an experience he enjoys. “I am increasingly homesick,” admits this 57-year-old father of four as we settle ourselves down in a cafe to talk.

It is more, though, than just nostalgia. Since Coren departed for Toronto in 1987 to marry his Canadian teacher wife, Bernadette, he has made quite a name for himself as a high-profile conservative Catholic apologist. His book, Why Catholics Are Right, was on the best-seller lists for 10 weeks; he wrote a prize-winning column in The Catholic Register, Canada’s equivalent of The Tablet; he appeared regularly on Mother Angelica’s ultra orthodox EWTN channel; he was even awarded a papal knighthood for “services to Catholic media”.