Orlando gunman's ex-wife thought he might be gay, too

Omar Mateen&#039;s ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, on CNN

(Image credit: CNN/YouTube)

published 15 June 2016

There is growing circumstantial suggestion that Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old Florida man who murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning, might have been gay himself. Mateen was married to a second wife and had a young child, but his first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, told CNN Tuesday night that she had her doubts about Mateen's sexual orientation.

"He did have a different side to himself that he could not open up to his father about," Yusufiy told CNN's Don Lemon: "The fact that he liked to go to nightclubs, the fact that he loved to drink — these were not things that were welcome in his family structure at all, and especially any indication of homosexuality." "So do you think that he had gay tendencies?" Lemon asked. "I'm not going to lie," Yusufiy said, "I definitely questioned it in my own head when I was with him, and wondered if he is, because he would do a lot of things — little things, you know, but that would definitely make any woman question if he was or not." If you want salacious details, Lemon asked and Yusufiy demurred, giving as an example that he liked to take selfies:

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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