Mon. March 29, 2010
After years of remaining silent on his sexuality, Ricky Martin has officially declared that he is gay.
Writing on his official Web site on Monday, the Latino pop star revealed, "I am proud to be a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed."
Despite scrutiny about his sexuality including a 2000 interview with Barbara Walters, the 38-year-old has kept quiet about his personal life throughout his career.
Today Martin writes, "Many people told me: ‘Ricky it's not important it's not worth it, all the years you've worked and everything you've built will collapse, many people in the world are not ready to accept your truth, your reality, your nature.'
"Because all this advice came from people who I love dearly, I decided to move on with my life not sharing with the world my entire truth. Allowing myself to be seduced by fear and insecurity became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage. Today I take full responsibility for my decisions and my actions."
Martin said thinking about his year-and-a-half-old twin sons, with whom he fathered through a surrogate, led him to speak publicly about his sexuality.
"This is just what I need especially now that I am the father of two beautiful boys that are so full of light and who with their outlook teach me new things every day. To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids where born with. Enough is enough. This has to change. This was not supposed to happen 5 or 10 years ago, it is supposed to happen now. Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment."
Many in the entertainment industry speculate today's announcement is timed to promote his new album and memoir tour.
"What will happen from now on? It doesn't matter. I can only focus on what's happening to me in this moment."
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