Jason Mraz said during a podcast interview that he didn't want to be the 'punchline of a joke.'
Jason Mraz is opening up about his sexuality. On Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Dinner's on Me podcast, the 47-year-old singer shared why he didn't publicly discuss his sexuality until 2018.
Mraz began the conversation by noting that he realized he wasn't straight as he "got older."
"I didn't have too many sexual experiences in high school. I was kind of afraid of high school. I was bullied and just ready to get out of town," he explained. "... That's why New York City was great and, even eventually, California was great. I also didn't have a whole lot of self-confidence, skinny, scrawny, 18-year-old kid in New York. I don't even know what to flirt with, who to flirt with, how to flirt."
After spending time in New York, Mraz took off for California where he "met a community of people that would see me in a new way."
"I'd never fully been seen before, and I liked how I was being seen and heard," he said. "But, at the same time, I still took with me the conservative street that I grew up on, and that was very hard to ignore or to break out of. I was very shy and scared of what my family would say, or what my hometown would think, or just whatever."
Mraz, who noted that his parents are "very supportive," went on to further clarify why he didn't come out in his younger years.
"In the '90s, being gay was like [the] punchline of a joke, and I didn't want to be the punchline of a joke," he said. "I kept my nose down and figured out ways I could instead get out and see the world one day. I've been enjoying that."
Mraz then classified himself as "a late bloomer," revealing, "My experiences are few."
"Even though I've been a late bloomer to where I am now, honestly I feel like my life is just starting," he said. "I can't say that I have found love. I have been in amazing relationships and I've always learned and grown... but I love where I am. I feel so much love for myself finally that can only enhance the next relationship, or a relationship, when I find one."
Mraz was married to Sheridan Edley from 2000 to 2001. He tied the knot with Christina Carano in 2015, and the pair split eight years later. During his marriage to Carano, Mraz discussed his sexuality in an interview with Billboard.
"I’ve had experiences with men, even while I was dating the woman who became my wife," he told the outlet in 2018. "It was like, 'Wow, does that mean I am gay?' And my wife laid it out for me. She calls it 'two spirit,' which is what the Native Americans call someone who can love both man and woman. I really like that."
Then, in a 2023 conversation with GLAAD, Mraz shared how his divorce helped him embrace his own identity.
"You carry a lot of shame, guilt," he said. "You want to heal as many relationships of the past as possible, and at the same time, step into this new acceptance and new identity or whatever I’m claiming, and that's also hard."
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