Ricky Martin has admitted to suppressing not only his own sexuality, but also his past boyfriends as well.
In an interview with UK's Attitude about his role in the mini-series The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Martin opened up about how he can personally relate to his character, Antonio D’Amico, Versace's longtime partner.
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“The level of injustice that we as a community were dealing with back then was heavy,” said Martin. “I played every role before I even started working on this project.”
Martin didn’t publicly come out until 2010.
“I was a closeted gay man who was making my partners hide,” he explained. “I had relationships with other men who were in the closet and I had other relationships with men who were not in the closet but because of me went back into the closet. And so I’m re-living everything that I did.
“I wouldn’t even sit down and have a cool relationship with amazing producers or great film directors because I was afraid that if they spent more than two hours sitting with me they would know my nature. I wasted so much energy trying to manipulate my sexuality.”
In January, Martin revealed that he and Jwan Yosef had married in secret, and together are raising their 9-year-old twins Matteo and Valentino.