Chris Daughtry and his wife, Deanna, are opening up about their relationship.
Chris Daughtry and his wife, Deanna, are opening up about their relationship.
The 39-year-old country singer's new single, "As You Are," is an emotional ballad, and in a new interview, he reveals that the song was written by his wife and is inspired by her struggle to embrace her bisexuality. The couple has been married since 2000, and Chris says he learned of her bisexuality shortly after they met and before he found fame when he placed fourth during season five of American Idol.
"I didn't care," Chris tells People about learning Deanna had been in a relationship with a woman in the past. "I didn't feel threatened. I wanted her to be happy with who she was and not hide that or be ashamed."
However, embracing her bisexuality wasn't that simple for 46-year-old Deanna.
"I was hiding and shutting down a part of myself, and it was causing me to shut down so many good, beautiful things about myself," she says. "As I built these walls up to protect myself, I was creating a prison, and I couldn't fully experience life and people couldn’t fully experience me -- and it's all based on fear."
Deanna wrote the emotional lyrics of "As You Are" in 2015, after undergoing therapy and learning to accept herself. Some of the lyrics include "You're feeling isolate/And all kinds of frustrate/But I love you as you are ... And don't worry about the hate/It don't fit in those boxes they create/And it's tearing you apart."
Chris says he's "super proud" of his wife's honesty.
"It's very important for people to know what the song is about and where it really came from," Chris says about why they're choosing to share the personal meaning behind it. "Otherwise we're not being authentic with the song. ... We're both after the same goal, and that's being our true selves to each other."
At a 2017 Human Rights Campaign gala in North Carolina, actress Evan Rachel Wood got candid about her bisexuality and her thoughts of suicide. Watch the video below for more:
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