The X Factor winner Joe McElderry has hit out at the ‘ridiculous’ moment he was forced to come out as gay.
The singer, 33, won Simon Cowell’s ITV competition in 2009 where he performed Miley Cyrus’s The Climb and was mentored by Cheryl.
The following year, Joe announced he is gay to end rumours about his sexuality, saying at the time: ‘I made the choice to speak openly about this.’
In a new interview, he’s now spoken about that decision and how his sexuality and coming out were ‘very public’.
‘There’s a little bit of a myth, I think that people assume that I went onto the show and all of my family and friends knew I was gay and it was this secret I kept from everyone,’ Joe began on BBC Radio Newcastle.
‘Nobody knew, I wasn’t out to anybody, and I was still working out who I was.
‘I remember sitting in a press roundtable interview, pretty early on in the live shows of The X Factor, and the journalists at the time… they were hammering us with really, really personal questions.
‘I was not prepared for that at all. Never mind as a human being, but as an 18-year-old boy who had never left the North East before in terms of a working environment, and you go into this room and I didn’t know the answers to those questions.’
Joe recalled how he felt at that time, unable to answer any of the questions because he didn’t know himself.
He continued: ‘People always say you always know, and you probably do, but it’s coming to terms with it in your own mind and being okay with it.’
After the show finished, Joe did feel as though he knew who he was and ‘discovered that I was gay and that’s who I wanted to be’.
However, he admitted, due to the fame he quickly found himself catapulted into and the speed at which he was forced to declare his sexuality, he was unable to ‘process’ it.
He said: ‘It wasn’t until long ago that I was like, that was actually ridiculous that it was front-page news because it shouldn’t be.
‘It’s so non-important, it’s important in my life and it’s important for who you are as a person but for everybody in the country to have to find out about that, and for it to be on front-page newspaper, it’s ridiculous.’
He added that though we have a ‘long way to go’, he ‘hopes’ that society has moved on, saying it ‘shouldn’t’ be front-page news.
Talking about growing up and figuring out his sexuality, ahead of performing at Pride events this year, Joe added:’When I was growing up and trying to work out who I was and having those inner questions in your own mind of “Who am I? What am I? Who do I like? Who do I fancy?” if maybe I had had [Pride events] when I was that age, it would have made it slightly easier in terms of putting that kind of language in your brain together, a little bit easier.’
‘I was very blessed with a very, very supportive family, so that in itself took away a little bit of that difficulty for me, but still, you still have all of those questions that you have to work out and map out,’ he went on, highlighting the importance of Pride events for people to see themselves on stage and screen.
‘I don’t think it ever eliminates the struggles, but it makes them slightly easier, and if you can make somebody’s journey to discovering who they are easier, it just helps everybody.’
In 2010, Joe announced he was gay on his website, after his Twitter account was hacked and fraudsters wrote: ‘It’s been difficult living a lie for so many years.’
According to reports, Joe deleted the message within ten minutes and clarified: ‘Guys my twitter has been hacked!’
He later wrote on his official website, as per quotes obtained by Mail Online at the time: ‘I have always been a very honest person and so it is important for me to continue to be honest.
‘It has been the most amazing year so far and I feel so privileged. It’s also been a time of real self realisation and I feel as if I have grown up so much in these few months.
‘There has been speculation about my sexuality in the past and I have always been honest at the time I have been asked.
‘Over the past few weeks I have really had time to reflect and to realise who I am. I spoke to my friends and family about this in the last few days and it was important to do the same for you all as you have been so supportive.
‘I have had nothing but support from you and many of you have been very open in saying that you will continue to support me whatever my sexuality. It is important to me to let you know first, so that you know the stories in the papers are true. I made the choice to speak openly about this.’
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He added: ‘Everything is going well and I’m really happy to be able to move forward from here.’
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