Ricky Martin is relieved to be out of the closet, said Kira Cochrane in the London Guardian. The Puerto Rican pop star realized he was gay when he was a child, but as a good Catholic boy he was terrified of admitting it. As a teenager, he became a heartthrob in the boy band Menudo, and in the ’90s, he turned himself into a pelvis-thrusting Latino sex symbol, and then spent two decades dodging rumors about his sexuality.
At the ripe old age of 39, he announced on his website last year that he was a “fortunate homosexual man.” “When I pressed ‘send’ I was really, really scared,” he says. “I went to my room and I was holding my pillow, and three minutes later I called a friend and said: ‘Tell me what they’re saying.’” To his surprise, the announcement has provoked nothing but love and support. “Oh my God,” he says. “I just wish that everyone who’s struggling right now could feel what I’m feeling. It’s just love coming from every direction!”
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