True confessions

Andy Cohen talks poppers, sex, and the challenges of hooking up

When it comes to hanky panky, Andy Cohen describes himself as “pretty uncensored.”

“I talk about poppers and about bottoms on my show,” he says in a new interview for Attitude’s October issue. “That’s the thing, I’m really open about who I am and am unapologetic, so I think there’s something freeing in that.”

It didn’t always used to be that way, though. The 50-year-old Bravo exec, who was recently the subject of a shockingly homophobic story published by the National Enquirer, reveals that when he first came out, sex “scared” him.

“I came out in 1988, at the height of the [AIDS] epidemic,” he says. “I was so scared to have sex. And it’s why I’m alive today, because I was really scared.”

“It was a scary time to be gay, it was a scary time to be sexual… It’s always kind of there in one way or another. It’s not something you can erase from your experience.”

Nowadays, it isn’t sex that scares him so much as dating, which he says can be a real challenge given his celebrity status.

“I think it’s harder for other people to sit down with me and have a date because they have preconceived notions,” Andy says.

“If I had never dated myself or I didn’t know me and it was just based on TV, I don’t know what I would think. I have no idea.”

As for dating apps, Andy says he uses them. But only on occasion. Hooking up was a lot easier before he was a TV star.

“I have been, kind of on-and-off because it’s challenging,” he explains. “It’s weird. It was probably more uncomplicated hooking up before I became famous.”

“I still hook up,” he adds. “I mean, a guy’s gotta eat!”

Related: Tabloid publishes shockingly homophobic story about “sex-crazed” Andy Cohen’s Grindr profile

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