Barry Manilow explains why he didn’t come out as gay publicly until 2017
nypost.comhe made it. Barry Manilow revealed Friday that the reason he kept his sexual orientation quiet for so long was due to the fact that the singer feared being gay would have “killed” his career. “Well, in the ’70s, you know, you didn’t [come out],” Manilow, 80, said to veteran journalist Chris Wallace while appearing on an episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?““It wasn’t the same as it is today.
Now being gay is no big deal. But back in the ’70s, it would have killed a career.”Manilow, who came out publicly in 2017 at the age of 73, told Wallace that being gay in the 1970s was a personal issue and that he wanted to focus on making music rather than talking about his personal life. “The public was not ready for anybody to come out.
And, frankly, it was just too personal,” the singer told Wallace, 76. “I just didn’t want to talk about my personal life anyway.
I never did that.”“I was happy talking about music. But talking about my personal life was just kind of creepy to me. So I never did,” the “Could It Be Magic” singer added.When asked by Wallace if Manilow ever felt like he needed to hide who he was, Manilow said he “never thought about it.”“Honestly, Chris, it was a non-event,” Manilow stated, adding that no one was really surprised when the singer and his manager Garry Kief, whom he met in 1978, both came out as gay and said that they had been secretly married since 2014. “And when we came out, it was — I think everybody knew that Garry and I were a couple all those years,” the “Mandy” singer said.
Read more on nypost.com