Glee star Kevin McHale reveals why he never came out while on the show
(Instagram/kevinmchale)
Kevin McHale has talked about his supposed coming out on Twitter in a new interview – and why didn’t talk about his sexuality during his Glee years
The American star, who played Artie Abrams on the show between 2009 and 2015, made headlines last month when he made a jokey tweet about Ariana Grande‘s new song, with some news sites claiming that he had publicly come out as gay.
“#NoTearsLeftToCry is gayer than me and I ACCEPT, ty @ArianaGrande,” the 29-year old star had tweeted.
Now, McHale has discussed the event in a Facebook Live chat with entertainment journalist Marc Malkin.
“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?’” McHale told Malkin.
“I was freaking out. 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?”
Kevin McHale (Getty)
McHale added that, although he hadn’t explicitly come out as gay before, many of his fans already knew about his sexuality.
“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 said. “People knew.”
McHale had already a photo on Instagram in March showing his hand on top of another man’s hand, which he later confirmed as his boyfriend, fellow actor Austin McKenzie. The pair met on the ABC series When We Rise.
(Instagram/kevinmchale)
McHale went on to discuss why he wasn’t open about his sexuality during his Glee years.
“The person I was with came from the most accepting family, but one of the family members, he was terrified of them finding out,” he said.
The actor went on to talk about whether Glee should be revived, saying he thinks the show should not be “as it was” back then
“I don’t think you should necessarily have – me, someone who is able-bodied – playing someone [who is disabled],” he said.
He added “There are very capable people who could be playing that role,” suggesting that his role could be re-cast.
The actor, who turns 30 next month, also revealed in the interview that he is currently working on new music.
