harry potter - Did J.K.Rowling always consider Dumbledore gay?

In 2007, Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore was gay.

We know that she planned a lot of things about Harry Potter's world well in advance.

Is there any info (from the books or a statement by her) that proves that she always planned for him to be this way; or the reverse, that she only decided on that fact about him in the middle of writing the books?

Official info only, no guesses please.

Answer

Yes, she did.

Q: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?
JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"
J.K. Rowling at Carnegie Hall - 10.20.07 - Via The Leaky Cauldron

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