Modern Family star: I came out when I was caught stealing gay porn
Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson has revealed that he came out to his father when he was caught stealing gay porn magazines.
The actor, who plays gay father Mitch on the show, made the comments on Aisha Tyler’s podcast Girl on Guy.
He said: “I was caught stealing gay porn when I was 14, I always consider that my coming out.
“It was so humiliating. I had been stealing porn for a while, I had quite a little a collection.
“I would bring it into the house but then I’d get nervous so I’d hide it under a mattress.
“[One day] I had been stealing porn and I had three magazines underneath my shirt. I guess the certain magazine that I picked up had a sensor in it, and I set off the alarm.
“I had to go back to the woman who asked me if I had anything in my backpack – she was giving me the benefit of the doubt.
“I couldn’t be like, ‘some porn fell inside my pants’ – I lifted up my shirt and I had tears in my eyes.
“She took me to the back room and they brought my dad in, showed him the nature of the material that I was stealing. It was really, really humiliating.
“My dad specifically wanted to hear me say it, so when I stole the porn I didn’t really know. He needed to be told three times.”
