Modern
Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson came out to his parents
after an embarrassing incident.
The 42-year-old Ferguson shared his
coming out story as part of PEOPLE's Coming Out Stories video
series.
When he was a freshman in high school,
Ferguson was caught stealing porn from his local bookstore and his
parents had to come get him.
“I shamefully showed them the
magazines under my shirt and they took me into a backroom and I was
held there and a police officer came and arrested me.” Ferguson
said.“My mom and dad had to come to the store and they had to
show them the ‘nature of the material’ I was stealing and that’s
sort of how I came out. I find it funny now, but at the time it was
incredibly traumatizing.”
“Ironically, my father still had a
hard time catching up. I snuck some straight porn in there too, so
that threw him off just enough,” said Ferguson, who added that he
came out to his father three times.
In 2013, Ferguson married attorney
Justin Mikita in New York City.
“I'm now married, and my father, who
had such a hard time accepting my sexuality, danced at my wedding
very happily,” Ferguson said.