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Privacy violations turned into powerful moments of authenticity... Join us as we explore the uncomfortable reality of celebrities who were forced to divulge their sexuality before they were ready. From intrusive interviews to tabloid exposés, these stars transformed their painful experiences into opportunities for growth, advocacy, and reclaiming their personal narratives.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're reliving the uncomfortable moments celebrities were forced to divulge information about their sexuality.
00:07I know a lot of people are eager for, you know, certain people to make statements or whatever, but you have to do it when it's right for you, and no sooner, and I don't think it's right to, you know, force that.
00:19Fortunately, these stars were able to turn a violation of privacy into a learning experience.
00:25So, here are 10 cautionary tales of public outing and reclamation.
00:29I think it's just also about reclaiming my power and my identity.
00:35Billie Eilish
00:36In a 2023 interview with Variety, Billie was discussing her relationships with women when she said, quote,
00:43I'm attracted to them as people. I'm attracted to them for real.
00:47The publication doubled down in a live interview where Billie was asked if she intended to come out.
00:52Billie! Did you mean to come out in this story?
00:56While the musician was clearly trying to be cryptic about these nuances to avoid an official coming out, the reporter had an obvious agenda.
01:05I just, I didn't realize people didn't know, so.
01:08We need to get to a point where you don't even have to come out.
01:09I just don't really believe in it. I'm just like, why can't we just exist?
01:14I've been doing this for a long time and I just didn't talk about it. Whoops.
01:17Billie later took to Instagram to declare, quote,
01:20Thanks Variety for my award and for also outing me on a red carpet at 11 a.m. instead of talking about anything else that matters.
01:27In an interview with Rolling Stone, she describes how she started writing the song Lunch before having a same-sex experience and finished it after.
01:34I said it all before but I say it again. I'm interested in more than just being a friend.
01:41So, in many ways, Billie credits the hit with helping her accept something she had long misunderstood.
01:53Khalid
01:53R&B singer Khalid had a rather similar trajectory.
01:57He recently dropped a new album full of lusty queer anthems that center him as a proud gay man.
02:02The project became an artistic expression of his coming out, though it's insincere to phrase it that way considering he was publicly outed well before its completion.
02:15While Khalid's sexuality is nobody's business, his ex-boyfriend brought it to the surface in a number of angry tweets that accused the Grammy-nominated artist of misconduct.
02:24Khalid quickly cleared up the untrue allegations, but he did acknowledge that he was in fact gay.
02:29This is all random. I don't know why he did it. I don't know what's going on with him.
02:34If you know me, you already know that's not how I get down.
02:37He took After the Sun Goes Down in a new direction to further explore his prematurely disclosed identity.
02:43I knew where I wanted to go. I'm like, I want to come back to pop because I love making pop music and I love exploring and diving into new worlds and finding out more about my own identity.
02:54The project received favorable criticism for its liberating messages, thus turning a negative into a positive.
03:06In the early 2000s, journalists had made it a habit of pressing celebrities about their virginity and sexuality.
03:13Repeat offender Barbara Walters infamously sat down with Ricky Martin, who had long experienced rumors about his orientation.
03:33Disguising her prompts as a chance to tell the truth, Ricky recalls feeling deeply violated, later reflecting that he was, quote, just not ready to come out.
03:41I just don't feel like it.
03:43Access Hollywood reporter Billy Bush put him on the spot shortly after, leading to the singer storming off set.
03:49And he goes, you mother f***ing rips off his microphone.
03:56Barbara Walters asked me this, and now you, you don't care at all about me, you want your headline.
04:02It'd be a decade before Ricky finally felt comfortable enough to speak out, stating that fatherhood inspired him to be more candid about his personal life.
04:09You know, my children, when I was holding them in my arms, I was like, what am I going to teach them how to lie?
04:14While Walters later admitted her questions were totally inappropriate, Ricky has affirmed that the moment still haunts him.
04:21She was knocking, like, punch after punch after punch. It was really uncomfortable.
04:25Tim Cook
04:25During a 2014 CNBC segment, co-anchor Simon Hobbs had a bit of a slip-up.
04:31While discussing Apple CEO Tim Cook, he fails to account for whether or not what he shares about Cook's personal life is public knowledge.
04:38Well, I think Tim Cook is fairly open about the fact that he's gay at the head of Apple, isn't he?
04:45Oh dear, was that an error?
04:47Wow.
04:48After a deeply uncomfortable moment of realization, the crew quickly moves on, despite having effectively just upended the CEO's world.
04:55I don't think he's very open about it.
04:57Although the New York Times tries very hard to bring that to the fore in the recent story.
05:00I don't want to comment about anybody who might or might not be, because I'm not going to out anybody.
05:06Prior to this, Cook had never actually spoken about his sexuality, and many felt the host's error was actually intentional.
05:13A few months after the ordeal, Cook stated that, quote,
05:16Rather than issuing this as a response to the troubling CNBC segment, he claims he opened up to inspire children who may be getting bullied for their sexual orientation.
05:27As the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Cook hopes to prove that adversity can be overcome,
05:34and you can run a successful business empire as a queer person.
05:37We have to get beyond this as a society.
05:41These are relevant differences in people that really don't matter.
05:44Rebel Wilson
05:45In 2022, the Sydney Morning Herald reached out to movie star Rebel Wilson to give her the courtesy of commenting on her secret relationship with a woman before they published it themselves.
05:56Asking for a review of what is essentially an expose piece is hardly doing any favors,
06:01and Wilson was effectively forced to hard-launch her relationship on Instagram to beat the vultures to the punch.
06:07It's more like just stepping into your own power as a woman.
06:10But she wouldn't go down quietly, as she exposed the columnist's grubby behavior and rightfully sparked global outrage against the paper.
06:18If you didn't want to do it, you shouldn't have done it. You knew exactly what you were doing.
06:23If I would not give a quote or talk to a place that's forcing me to tell a story I'm not ready to tell.
06:28Right.
06:28A similar incident had occurred a year prior, when Bachelor star Colton Underwood was sent a threatening notice that photos of him at a spa frequented by gay men would be leaked.
06:38He too came forward with his sexuality so that it could at least come from him rather than a nefarious other.
06:43I don't know. I guess basically what I'm trying to tell you is I'm gay.
06:50By holding the responsible parties accountable, Wilson and Underwood reasserted the need for media ethics and highlighted the terrible consequences of outing someone.
06:59She was the person I was most nervous to tell because I come from quite a conservative family.
07:05George Michael
07:05Taking it back to 98, heartthrob George Michael didn't exactly get the heads up that Rebel Wilson did.
07:11After his arrest for committing a, quote, lewd act in a public restroom, the story was quickly picked up and plastered front and center on every headline.
07:20Mr. Michaels was arrested for a violation of 647A of the penal code engaging in a lewd act.
07:28In interviews, he stated that it never occurred to him that he should have to make a public statement about his sexuality.
07:34My sexuality was not cut and dry.
07:36I spent the first half of my career being accused of being gay when I hadn't had anything like a gay relationship.
07:47However, as we see time and time again, celebrities are never safe from the prying eyes of paparazzi and the insatiable public.
07:54His next song, Outside, parodied the controversy and helped him shift the negative attention into something he could laugh off.
08:01In the meantime, take me to the places that I love best.
08:06Lance Bass
08:07It'd hardly be fair to say that the former NSYNC band member happily danced out of the closet in 2006.
08:13Rather, he was sort of bullied out by nasty tabloids.
08:16You know, my first three boyfriends were all just a secret to me and then my little inner circle.
08:23My family didn't know, no one like knew that.
08:25Because of his religious upbringing, Bass stated in interviews that he saw opening up as terrifying on a personal level and potentially career-ending.
08:33Bottom line is what the record labels look at.
08:36They just want to make money.
08:37And if this artist isn't going to pull in this many fans because they're gay, they're not going to support him as much.
08:44Though he made the most of his coming out with a People magazine cover story,
08:47he'd actually been pressured by media moguls like Perez Hilton, who pestered him for years.
08:52When blogs became really popular, you know, and Perez Hilton and, you know, those type of people,
08:57those are the ones that really started attacking me and really trying to pull me out of the closet, but not in a very healthy way.
09:04The gossip blogger was notorious for this vicious behavior, also victimizing Neil Patrick Harris in the same way.
09:10But if you're struggling with any of that yourself, you can't just go like, oh, okay, and then do it.
09:15Like, it's little baby steps of acceptance in your own personal sphere.
09:18Harris spoke out the same year about what he deemed to be a threat to either come out or be outed.
09:24I don't think, like, doing it in sort of an exploitive way makes any sense.
09:30Perez, who ironically participated in the It Gets Better campaign, has since apologized for his role in these coming out stories,
09:37which are far less ceremonious when accounting for the behind-the-scenes manipulation.
09:41People were saying, how could you make an It Gets Better video when you're part of the problem?
09:45You're a hypocrite. You're a bully.
09:47Ultimately, both Bass and Harris have stated that they are happy with their decisions
09:51and enjoy authentically sharing their love for their partners with the world.
09:55If you had to describe our relationship in three words...
10:00Hilarious.
10:01Yeah.
10:02Non-stop.
10:04Yeah.
10:05Adventure.
10:06Michelle Rodriguez
10:07When the actress found herself on the cover of Curve, a magazine that caters to lesbians,
10:13she was utterly confused.
10:14She'd never posed for the magazine, nor had she given editors permission to splash her across the front page.
10:20Are there any rumors you want to fix about yourself?
10:23I'm not a lesbian.
10:25While the article doesn't outright state that she herself is a lesbian,
10:29it features her in a speculative manner intended to sell copies.
10:32Rumors quickly swept the internet, and Rodriguez took to her website to fire back at the columnists who misrepresented her image.
10:39This happened back in 2007, and it wasn't until 2013 that Rodriguez would share that she was indeed bisexual.
10:52She's remained open about her love life, taking to Instagram to write,
10:56be you, be kind, be better, be open, be careful if you feel unsafe, be love.
11:03Michelle, how did you come out?
11:04How did you...
11:05Ah, somebody just asked me, and I told them.
11:07I like boys.
11:08I like girls.
11:10I like both.
11:11I've always kind of gone my own little way.
11:13I'm the rogue girl in Hollywood who's just kind of made my own path and not really cared what people think too much.
11:19Yeah, I was in the news because I was a public figure or whatever.
11:22Clay Aiken
11:23American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken faced a lot of scrutiny over his sexuality,
11:28but didn't address it for a long time.
11:31On a 2006 taping of Live with Regis and Kelly, Aiken and Ripa clashed during a live spat.
11:36Is that a no-no?
11:37Oh, that's a no-no.
11:39No-no-no.
11:41Oh, I'm in trouble.
11:41I should just sit.
11:42No, I just don't.
11:43I don't know where that hand's been, honey.
11:46Later that week on The View, Rosie O'Donnell played a clip of the moment and condemned the way Ripa responded to Aiken.
11:51But it was O'Donnell's careless mention that Ripa would have never treated Aiken that way,
11:55quote,
11:55If that was a straight man, if that was a cute man, if that was a guy that she, you know, didn't question his sexuality,
12:05she would have said a different thing.
12:06I was offended by that.
12:08Aiken publicly came out as gay two years later,
12:10but many feel Rosie had unintentionally put his business on blast during this awkward live moment.
12:16Aiken has since reflected that he lost about 50% of his fan base when he came out,
12:20but did so because he didn't want to hide any part of himself from his newborn son.
12:24I can't raise a kid and teach him how to hide things.
12:26I can't raise a kid and teach him to keep secrets.
12:29And at the same time, I also don't ever want to raise him in an environment
12:32where it's not okay for him to be exactly who he is.
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12:50T.R. Knight
12:51During a late night fight on the set of Grey's Anatomy,
12:54it's reported that Isaiah Washington used a homophobic slur in reference to co-star T.R. Knight.
12:59Meantime, Knight is shocked by Washington's denial.
13:03When asked about Washington's remarks, Knight said,
13:05Washington referred to me as a blank.
13:08Everyone heard it.
13:10Knight went on to say that Washington's homophobic slur forced him to publicly admit that he's gay.
13:15Washington was fired from the show when this happened in 2006,
13:18but the damage had already been done.
13:20No, I did not call T.R. a f***.
13:22It never happened.
13:24It never happened.
13:25Word of the altercation even got back to Knight's family,
13:28who were unaware of his sexuality at the time.
13:31In order to quell rumors, Knight went public with the information,
13:35feeling the scandal had become bigger than himself.
13:37Everyone has their own path, and you know, it'd be, uh...
13:43You just have to respect that.
13:45In one statement, the actor both called out the bad behavior
13:48and chose a path he says ultimately changed his life for the better.
13:52You have the power to make a difference just by treating people with dignity and respect.
13:56Choose to be an ally.
13:57Were you shocked by some of the inappropriate outings on this list?
14:01Let's talk in the comments below.
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