Singer Ricky Martin has come out gay.
The thirty-eight-year-old father of two
said in a statement linked from Twitter: “I am proud to say that I
am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.”
Martin posted the message in both
English and Spanish.
The Puerto Rican star began his singing
career in the teen group Menudo and crossed over to English with the
wildly popular single Livin' la Vida Loca in
1999.
Rumors about his sexuality have swirled
since then. In a 2000 The Mirror interview, Martin denied he
was gay: “I guess these rumors [about being gay] were started by
people who don't have a life, or perhaps it's because they want me to
be like them and I'm not. I try not to pay attention to any of these
allegations. I could have been married with kids for years or have
27 girlfriends, and if people still want to go around saying that I'm
gay, they will.”
Martin said writing his memoirs had
prompted him to come out of the closet.
“From the moment I wrote the first
phrase I was sure the book was the tool that was going to help me
free myself from things I was carrying within me for a long time.
Things that were too heavy for me to keep inside,” he said in a
statement. “Writing this account of my life, I got very close to
my truth. And this is something worth celebrating.”
He kept his sexuality a secret, Martin
said, because he believed it would hurt his career.
Martin became a father of twin boys
born via a surrogate in 2008.