Embracing your sexuality, no matter what your orientation, can be hard for anyone. These 5 stars all had a hard time coming to accept the fact that they are gay. Some tried to avoid it, while others felt so overwhelmed by it that they developed an eating disorder or even attempted suicide, before they could finally realize it wasn’t that big of a deal. Some found it hard to deal with because they came from a religious background, while others feared that their career could be negatively impacted.
Chely Wright
Chely made a suicide attempt before realizing she could come out and still be happy: “I was looking at myself in a mirror… as I was about to do it. I just looked at myself and something snapped and I started to cry… and I realised I have too much to live for. I may lose my career in country music (by ‘coming out’), that will break my heart, but it’s okay. I have a lot of different pieces of my heart that matter and that’s what I’ve come to learn.”
Will Young
Will Young was afraid of his sexuality at first and didn’t engage in sex until later in life because of his fears: “I was terrified of being gay so I didn’t really feel sexual until I was about 26. I wasn’t really having sex, so I was quite inhibited. I feel like I’ve reached a place that I’m happy with, worked out things I will never do. It’s taken me years to work that out.”
Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin felt a great pressure to conceal his sexuality earlier on his career:”Being Ricky Martin back then and what I was feeling were not compatible. I was the sex symbol and I needed to dance and I needed to make girls crazy and I couldn’t say that I was gay. It was a lot of struggle. If you add to that whether you call it culture, religion, society but what I was feeling, according to what I had in my mind, was evil and I’m very lucky today that what I have in my mind is love and I’m very happy.”
Portia De Rossi
Portia de Rossi had an eating disorder which she partially feels came on because she was having a hard time accepting her sexuality: “But it sure didn’t help that I was hiding who I was because who I really was was completely unacceptable, I mean there were no lesbian actresses in the history of acting, I had no real gay role models, it was a very tough time.”
Cheyenne Jackson
Glee actor Cheyenne grew up as part of a religious family, so he struggled with being gay before coming out aged 19: “I never felt further away from who I really am. Singing was everything to me. It gave me hope.” His mother, Sherri, adds, “It was a difficult time. It can be real divisive, but I feel we weathered it very well. I feel I’ve become more openhearted, because otherwise the world can be black and white, and it isn’t. It’s good to grow.”
