Ricky Martin is opening up about that time Barbara Walters tried outing him in an interview 21 years ago and he’s not holding back.
Speaking to People, the 49-year-old singer says he felt “violated” by the iconic journalist’s line of questioning and that he still suffers from PTSD from the whole thing.
During the 2000 interview, Walters confronted Martin about the gossip surrounding his sexuality at the time and said he could “stop these rumors” by, oh, you know, coming out to her right then and there.
“You could say, ‘Yes I am gay or no I’m not,'” the then-ABC anchor nudged in a transparent effort to try and make news.
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To which a visibly uncomfortable Martin replied, “Barbara, for some reason, I just don’t feel like it.”
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7e6lSSF0aRM
“When she dropped the question, I felt violated because I was just not ready to come out. I was very afraid,” Martin tells People, adding he still feels “a little PTSD with that.”
He adds, “A lot of people say, ‘What would you do differently?’ Well, maybe I would have come out in that interview. It would’ve been great because when I came out, it just felt amazing. When it comes to my sexuality, when it comes to who I am, I want to talk about what I’m made of, about everything that I am. Because if you hide it, it’s a life-or-death situation.”
Martin eventually did come out as gay in 2010 after several years or dodging questions about his sexuality and dating women. (Martin was in a long-term relationship with TV presenter Rebecca de Alba from 1995 to 2002.)
“Sexuality is one complicated thing,” he says. “It’s not black and white. It’s filled with colors. When I was dating women, I was in love with women. It felt right, it felt beautiful. You can’t fake chemistry. The chemistry was there with them. I wasn’t misleading anyone.”
Speaking to the Toronto Star in 2010, Walters said she regretted the way she interrogated Martin during their interview.
“I pushed Ricky Martin very hard to admit if he was gay or not, and the way he refused to do it made everyone decide that he was,” she said. “A lot of people say that destroyed his career, and when I think back on it now, I feel it was an inappropriate question.”
“There are many, many kids out there that don’t have someone to look up to,” Martin says. “All they have around them is people telling them, ‘What you’re feeling is evil.’ But, you can’t force someone to come out. But if you have an egg and you open it from the outside, only death comes out. But if the egg opens up from the inside, life comes out.”
Jake123
Sure it was a a jerk move… but PTSD is a bit of an extreme reaction don’t you think.
ted
Best comment on here.
Seriously… ?
Liquid Silver
Exactly. I know people with PTSD. Don’t. Just don’t.
Jimmer
Y’all need to stop attacking peoples feelings. His calling it PTSD takes nothing away from the PTSD of our brave service members.
I have had an anxiety/depression disorder since returning from my 3rd tour in Riyadh. I had always thought it was due to testing HIV+ until a VA assigned therapist diagnosed it as PTSD. It had nothing to do with being in a war, Operation Desert Storm, the PTSD was caused my being sexually assaulted while in Riyadh.
So, please understand that PTSD is not just a war issue, it can be brought on my any Traumatic experience. Everyone has the right to their feelings, stop questioning and just be supportive instead of bitchy.
Kevan1
Different time and place. You need to check your lack of understanding and empathy at the door. Things have changed a lot. I am sure he panicked. His career was on the line and hurt by that interview. One’s sexuality is their own business, so is when or if they decide to share it.
Joshooeerr
Yes, it’s kind of disrespectful to people with real PTSD. Walters was an ass in almost every interview she ever did. But she only felt emboldened to push RM so hard because absolutely everybody already knew he was gay.
Jake123
@Kevan but seriously PTSD, relax like.
Mister P
I always thought Walters was overrated as an interviewer.
Cam
““Sexuality is one complicated thing,” he says. “It’s not black and white. It’s filled with colors. When I was dating women, I was in love with women. It felt right, it felt beautiful. You can’t fake chemistry. The chemistry was there with them. I wasn’t misleading anyone.””
Then why did Walter’s question terrify him so much? He was supposedly dating Rebecca De Alba then. If he was really dating her and really felt that way he wouldn’t have had any problem telling Walters “I’m in a long term relationship with a wonderful woman.”
And here is a section from the interview with Martin’s former girlfriend.
“Perhaps one of the most honest moments of the interview published on Yordi Rosado’s channel this week was when Rebecca de Alba confessed that “it was no surprise” to her when Martin openly declared that he is homosexual. “When he came out and said (he was gay) it was no surprise to me,” de Alba said.”
So it sounds like things weren’t as full on as Martin remembers.
Not trying to shade Martin, but he seems more worried about admitting that he may have mislead some women. That is what bigotry and the closet does. It forces people, through fear, to unintentionally hurt others by staying closeted.
MissTerri
No one is required to come out of the closet according to your exact specifications, Queen Camilla!
Cam
@MissTerri
Awww, the right wing troll account thought it could post something, but then it had to lash out and blew it’s whole move.
Sweetie, you regularly attack any LGBTQ person who is out of the closet defend bigots who attack them, and then blame the victims.
Your troll game is getting worse and worse. I’m embarrassed for you.
MissTerri
@Cam
Get help! You are not well and you clearly have too much time on your hands!!!
Cam
@MissTerri
Says the troll account with a dozen screenames and an unhealthy obsession with me.
Awww. precious. It’s ok, admitting your troll game is sad and tired is the first step.
dhmonarch89
Oh get over it! When you think of all the people he could have helped- including himself, by coming out back then- all this hand wringing for 20 years is getting ridiculous! I guess this is now his career.
Shady Gaga
Holocaust survivors justifiably suffer from PTSD. So do people involved in war combat or survivors of terrorist attacks. But suffering PTSD because someone asks if you are gay? Soon people will have PTSD from getting a hangnail.
Jimmer
Y’all need to stop attacking peoples feelings. His calling it PTSD takes nothing away from the PTSD of our brave service members.
I have had an anxiety/depression disorder since returning from my 3rd tour in Riyadh. I had always thought it was due to testing HIV+ until a VA assigned therapist diagnosed it as PTSD. It had nothing to do with being in a war, Operation Desert Storm, the PTSD was caused my being sexually assaulted while in Riyadh.
So, please understand that PTSD is not just a war issue, it can be brought on my any Traumatic experience. Everyone has the right to their feelings, stop questioning and just be supportive instead of bitchy.
Liquid Silver
Jimmer…y’all need to stop justifying everybody’s hyperbolic overestimation of their feelings. I seriously doubt it’s PTSD. I doubt he’s been to a therapist for it. And so on.
In short, you’re giving me PTSD. Stop it.
Fahd
I took his reference to PTSD as sort of a slang use of the term and in the context that English is not his first language. I took him to mean it still bothered him.
Even though he’s clearly not the brightest and clearly had issues coming to terms with his sexuality, I consider him pretty open and authentic in his discussion of the topic – and even though he’s now a crossover star, he grew up and evolved into pop icon/star personality in the Spanish-speaking world, not exactly an accepting culture free of homophobia.
To me, mafia-brat Barbara Walters’ ham-handed interview technique seems to have aged much worse than his efforts at avoiding the topic —
No doubt he’s not ready to accept responsibility when he says his own struggle to accept himself did not hurt any of the women with whom he had a relationship ….but there’s something amiss, in my opinion, when society insists, on the one hand, that everyone must make a categorical binary choice about the gender to which one is attracted, but on the other hand, gender fluidity is more and more accepted.
He’s a person of average intelligence who has become a very rich superstar – in that context I really think he does many good things for different communities.
Dymension
I’m Puerto Rican and we all know what PTSD means.
Fahd
@Dymension
If you read down the article here it actually quotes him saying that he still feels “…a little PTSD with that.”
Maybe his remark is insensitive to people who have real PTSD from military service or other traumatic events, but I think when he said “little” and from the context that he didn’t mean PTSD as an official diagnosis. I think he was in a colloquial way saying that what happened in the interview still bothered him.
Also, even if you are Puerto Rican, you can’t speak for everyone of Puerto Rican heriitage. Just like Ricky’s support of the campaign to get the last Puerto Rican governor to resign (which he did) was not endorsed by every Puerto Rican. .
Also, as I understand his story, Ricky didn’t really learn English until early adulthood – it makes a difference with fine points like this.
BoomerMyles
I don’t buy he was head over heels in love with all these woman.
For a gay man there’s always something BIG missing in the relationship (and I just don’t mean the D).
Dymension
What. Ever.
Liquid Silver
Egg. Zack. Lee.
cuteguy
It’s pretty simple why he didn’t come out, he was afraid but he was afraid of losing his career. He was at the height of his fame and being wasn’t accepted as it is today. It would’ve been career suicide back then, even though it wasn’t that long ago, gay support has grown rapidly in recent years especially after the great president Obama came out in support of gay marriage in 2012.
Polaro
I like Ricky, but this seems a bit overly dramatic for me. He got caught in a lie, that’s why it still bothers him. It isn’t PTSD. He was not dating women at the time, so he’s still lying. Yes, I do understand why he feared it would hurt his career. I’m amazed it di not hurt him more than it did.
He’s dropped a notch in my estimation with this nonsense. What did he expect a interviewer to ask him? It wasn’t Tiger Beat Magazine, after all. It was pretty well known at the time that he had been diddling guys since he was a teenager.
usamike
PTSD has various levels. From proper diagnosis to those who self diagnose.
I will say Ricky Martin has self diagnosed himself with a little bit of PTSD.
We know his public life but not his private life and inner emotions and mental state of living his life.
As for interviewers, they have to go for the jugular. Trying to make news and bring in advertisement.
It’s why now interviewees request a list of questions and manipulate those questions and only allow interviewers to ask the questions listed.
Times are better for some of us as opposed to 20 years ago. At least in nations where LGBT rights have been affirmed.
winemaker
He’s been out longer than this as anyone with perception knew he was gay so what’s the problem here? Really ones sex life is personal and if they wish to share it with the rest of the world that’s their decision and theirs alone. Kind of reminds me about Liberace, Everybody with two eyes knew he was gay even though he denied it to the day he died.
Fang
I love the metaphor Walters used with the egg. Also, I appreciate the thoughtful regret she expressed
frankcar1965
That’s ok, she’s getting her comeuppance, since I hear she is now shitting in her Depends diapers and drooling all over herself.
JRamonMc
Since everyone commenting is a licensed professional therapist, I guess I’ll take it as gospel that it couldn’t possibly be PTSD. Not!