Glee actor Kevin McHale recently sat down with Marc Malkin at Facebook Live for his first interview since coming out publicly earlier this year.
In the interview, McHale says he didn’t initially think coming out was necessary. He assumed everyone already just sorta knew.
“If somebody was a big fan and following everything I was doing [on social media], like the people I interact with on Twitter on a daily basis, I think there was zero surprise,” he says. “People knew.”
As for the response, he definitely wasn’t expecting all the fanfare.
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“Twenty-four hours goes by, and all of a sudden I get a barrage of tweets and people being like, ‘Oh my god, congrats! Welcome!’ I’m like, ‘What happened? I was freaking out,” he recalls.
Related: Twitter is freaking out over Kevin McHale maybe probably coming out
The 29-year-old continues, “I was like, something happened that I do not know about. And then I saw that it was the tweet. People were like, ‘Oh, you just came out.’ I was like, did I? I was like, would anyone choose to come out in a tweet about an Ariana Grande song?”
#NoTearsLeftToCry is gayer than me and I ACCEPT. Ty @ArianaGrande.
— Kevin McHale (@druidDUDE) April 20, 2018
As for his boyfriend, 24-year-old actor Austin McKensize, McHale confirms they met while working on the TV miniseries Rise.
When asked about his earlier Instagram posts featuring his boyfriend, in particular the cryptic hand-holding post that got everyone talking in the first place, McHale explains:
I posted a picture of us holding hands two months ago or something and I was going to post it, just being sappy and I’m like, this is cute and I’m feeling nice right now. And I’m going to post it but I was like, ‘Do you care if I post this?’ and he’s like, ‘No.’
Looking back on the whole thing, McHale says he’s happy that he’s finally officially 100% publicly out: “I’m definitely happy about that. Better out than not. I’m happy. I’m like, great—that takes care of that.”
Watch.
Marc Malkin's Facebook Live with Glee's Kevin McHale
Glee’s Kevin McHale sits down for his first interview since coming out as gay, plus he weighs in on a possible Glee reboot
Posted by Marc Malkin on Thursday, May 10, 2018
Related: Mystery solved: ‘Glee’ star’s boyfriend has been positively identified
