Shaun Woodward, a former member of Parliament and onetime Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has come out as gay.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, his daughter Ella revealed she's thrilled her father is happy at last, and has invited him and his boyfriend to her upcoming wedding.

A former BBC producer, Woodward served as Northern Secretary from 2007 to 10 under Prime Minister. He was initially a Conservative MP but defected to the Labor Party over Section 28, a statute that banned the "promotion" of homosexuality in the UK.

Woodward, 57, is now sharing his life with Luke Redgrave, the nephew of actresses Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave.

"Growing up, my dad was the ultimate person for open-mindedness," says Ella, a food writer. "No matter how much someone was like: ‘Whoa, can you believe so-and-so is like that?.’ He’d be like: ‘Well, why does it matter to you?’ And that rubbed off on us."

The end of her parent's marriage was sad for the family, "but my siblings and I feel that, even if the transition is difficult, everyone will end up happier," says Ella.

"Dad is happy.... That’s fundamentally what matters. If this is what he wants in his life, then good for him."

While the Northern Ireland Assembly passed a measure legalizing marriage equality in 2015, it was vetoed by the Democratic Unionists, the country's largest political party.