Bestselling author Jodi Picoult knew her son was gay before he did.

Jodi Picoult may be the queen of popular fiction, but she still comes across as the kind of bubbly woman you wish lived next door.

The 50-year-old has authored more than 20 novels, exploring characters, situations and stories with an authenticity second to none.

Despite such immense pressure, the My Sister’s Keeper author manages to balance the demands of work with those of her family in the verdant American state of New Hampshire.

Picoult explained to Mia Freedman on No Filter how the revelation her son shared while she was conducting research for her 2011 novel Sing You Home influenced her work.

Sing You Home follows the story of one gay woman as she tries to create a family with her new partner using the frozen embryos created by her and her ex-husband. (Post continues after audio.)

The American author recalled how her son Kyle had told her he identified as gay.

“When I was in the process of doing research for this book [Sing You Home], he was in the process of writing college admission essays,” she said.

“And he came to me with his essay and he said, ‘Hey, will you read this and give me feedback?’ and I said, ‘Yeah sure’. And I read it and in his essay, he came out.”

“I gave him a big hug and I said, ‘Kyle, I love you. There is nothing you could say that would make me love you any less and there’s no way I could possibly love you any more’.”

Picoult said the admission was one she believed she had known about since his infancy.

“Because when he was five years old he used to go see Disney movies and say, 'Mummy, look how pretty the prince is'," she said.

“For all of you who think being gay is a choice.”

The author said it was Kyle who seemed to be the last to know.

“He didn’t know and it was his prerogative to tell us and I knew that this was an issue that I wanted to write about," she said.

Listen to the full No Filter podcast to learn more about Picoult's writing process and the recent challenges she's had to overcome.

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