Ricky Martin’s coming out
His father encouraged him
Ricky Martin performing.
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It’s been 14 years, and now Ricky Martin has remembered how he felt when he publicly came out.
Ricky Martin (52) has in the SiriusXM show “Andy Cohen Live” revealed that his father encouraged him to come out. The 52-year-old wrote in an open letter in 2010: “I am proud to say that I am a happy gay man.” He is “very blessed to be who I am.”
Now the singer also revealed that his team had previously warned him not to talk about his sexuality. Martin explained that his former advisers told him that if he came out publicly, it could mean “the end of your career.” Ricky Martin continued, they encouraged him “not to tell the world. Your friends know it, your family knows it. Why do you have to stand in front of the camera and talk about it?”
Relieved after coming out
His father still encouraged him to talk about his sexuality for the sake of his children. Ricky Martin remembers his father saying, “What are you going to do, teach your kids to lie? You have to be open.” He also offered to help him.
I said, “All right, Dad, I’m working on it. Give me a second. I don’t know how. I don’t know if it’s through an interview. I don’t know if I should write a letter and post it. I Do not know.” After he finally published the open letter, he was relieved, he said on “Andy Cohen Live”. “It was an incredible feeling.” He started “crying like a baby,” he explained.
Ricky Martin is a father of four
In 2008, Ricky Martin became the father of his now 15-year-old twin sons Matteo and Valentino, who were delivered by a surrogate mother. With his ex-husband Jwan Yosef (39), he also has daughter Lucia, born in 2018, and son Renn, who was born in 2019. The couple married in 2018 and have been divorced since August 2023.