Irish hurling legend Dónal Óg Cusack has said he received death threats after coming out as gay, but said he and his father would "laugh about it".
The sports star appears in the first episode of the new season of Keys To My Life, the RTÉ series in which presenter Brendan Courtney meets Irish personalities who reveal how the places they've lived in have shaped their lives.
For the season five opener, Courtney travels to Cusack's hometown of Cloyne, Co Cork, to chat to the champion hurler about his formative years, close-knit family and hurling career.
The presenter first visits the hurling star's brand new architect-designed home where he lives with his two Chow Chow dogs and partner of nine years, Nathan.
The pair also make visits to the Cusack family homestead, which is bordered by a GAA pitch and a statue of Dónal Óg's relative, legendary hurler Christy Ring, and his grandparents' homes, where his parents grew up as neighbours.
In 2009, Cusack came out publicly in his autobiography Come What May. The revelation sparked a media storm but broke new ground in the sporting world as he became Ireland's first openly gay elite sportsman.
When asked if he was worried about any negative repercussions to coming out, Cusack said: "If you have a problem with that, that's your problem not my problem.
"You live your life, I'm living my life. We're only here for a short time.
"From a sporting point of view, playing was really important to me, being the best I could be, but when I look back at my sporting career, I'm delighted I came out while I was playing.
"I wasn't the gay hurler - I was a hurler who happened to be gay."
Cusack continued: "I remember my father told me once upon a time there'd be some people around the village who would say to him, 'I'm sorry to hear about Dónal Óg'. We'd laugh about it, he'd laugh about it."
The hurler went on to say he received death threats after coming out.
"Did [I] get a bit of stick? I did," he said. "There were letters coming in the door, death threats - cut outs from the newspaper... about all the gay men that were murdered, saying you're next.
"My father and myself would laugh about that. Because my father would say, 'The person who did that, they're probably afraid to go into a dark room with themselves, and they're sending that to you.'"
Cusack added: "There's enough hassle in life, your sexuality shouldn't be one of those.
"Back to my grandfather's words when I was a young kid - 'Live while you can and die when you can't help it.'"
The new series of Keys To My Life starts on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player at 8:30pm on Sunday 31 August and runs for seven weeks.
