Ricky Martin is the cover star of People Magazine's Pride Issue, and the Latin legend revealed that he has "a little PTSD" from that infamous interview with Barbara Walters.
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The year was 2000, and rumors had already been swirling about Martin's sexuality but he had never publicly addressed them. Walters presented Martin with the gossip, declaring that moment to be the time where he “could stop these rumors.”
“You could say, ‘Yes I am gay or no I’m not,'” said Walters.
Martin, visibly uncomfortable, replied, “Barbara, for some reason, I just don’t feel like it.”
According to People, the moment still haunts him. "When she dropped the question, I felt violated because I was just not ready to come out. I was very afraid. There's a little PTSD with that."
Knowing what he knows now, would he do it differently? "Well, maybe I would have come out in that interview," said Martin. "It would've been great because when I came out, it just felt amazing. When it comes to my sexuality, when it comes to who I am, I want to talk about what I'm made of, about everything that I am. Because if you hide it, it's a life-or-death situation."
In 2010, Walters told the Toronto Star she regretted the way the interview went down.
“I pushed Ricky Martin very hard to admit if he was gay or not, and the way he refused to do it made everyone decide that he was. A lot of people say that destroyed his career, and when I think back on it now, I feel it was an inappropriate question.”
