The pop music star recently opened up about having to hide that he was gay during his group's early years.
New Kids on the Block's Jonathan Knight is happily married to longtime partner Harley Rodriguez, and is living his life in truth and with joy. However, that freedom and openness wasn't always something he felt was an option.
During a recent episode of the podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass, Knight opened up to Bass and Joey Fatone about his experiences with being essentially forced to keep his sexuality a secret during his band's early years.
"My manager knew I was gay," Knight explained, adding that it wasn't something he hadn't realized. But rather, it was something he felt he couldn't share.
"Did they ever tell you you can't say anything?" Bass asked.
"My manager actually did. He pulled me aside and was like, 'If anybody finds out, your career is over. The New Kids' career is over. My career is over,'" Knight recalled. "It was just so much pressure."
"Looking back, that was a lot of pressure to put on somebody who's just trying to figure out the world themselves," he continued, adding that, "As it went along, the stress built up and built up and built up."
Eventually, he was overwhelmed with anxiety and felt like he was having a nervous breakdown.
Still, it was several years before he came out as gay -- and it wasn't something he did by choice. Instead, he was outed against his wishes or knowledge.
"It was a boyfriend of mine who sold pictures of us to the National Enquirer," Knight explained.
In fact, Knight didn't want to make a formal announcement of his sexuality at all, even after the tabloid reports.
"I didn't want to. I was just living my life... it wasn't something I was hiding," he recalled. "But then it was like, 'No, you have to make a statement. You have to clear the air.' And that whole process was horrible."
Now days, Knight says that coming out has become something that doesn't need big declarations or op-eds. Celebs have become much more confident, and the public has become exceptionally more accepting, and he celebrated the direction that acceptance has headed in the years since his own experience with coming out.
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