Ricky Martin has revealed the emotional reason he decided to publicly come out as gay – despite his former team claiming it would "be the end of your career".
The 52-year-old confirmed his sexuality in 2010 at the age of 38 in a letter he posted on Twitter, now X, after years of speculation.
Ricky admitted that it was his father, former psychologist Enrique Morales, who encouraged him to come out to avoid teaching his children to "lie".
The Palm Royale star is father to 15-year-old twin sons Matteo and Valentino – whom he welcomed via surrogate in 2008 – and shares daughter Lucia, five, and son Renn, four, with his ex-husband, Jwan Yosef.
During an interview on Sirius XM's Andy Cohen Live, he recalled the conversation he had with his dad, who told him: "Rick, you need to come out."
Ricky added: "Especially when I became a father, he said, 'What are you going to [do] teach your kids, to lie? You gotta be open. You gotta go out... I want to help you. How can we do this?'
"I'm like, 'All right, dad, I'm working on it. Gimme a second. I don't know how. I don't know if it's through an interview. I don't know if I want to write a letter and tweet it. I don't know. Gimme a break. It'll come,'" he said.
Both of Ricky's parents knew he was gay. He came out to his mother, Dona Nereida Morales when he was 18, but he admitted that she needed some time to "accept" it because she feared he would get "hurt".
"When I told my mum when I was 18 years old, she was concerned because she said, 'Oh my God, I just don't want you to hurt. People out there are really cruel' – and so it took her a minute to accept it," he explained.
"But obviously when I did it, I made sure she was on an airplane on her way to see me. I did what I did, I wrote a letter, and I tweeted it," he added.
Not everyone in his life was as encouraging though. Ricky revealed that his team at the time had warned him to hide his sexuality.
He said they told him: "You don't need to share, everybody knows around you, you don't have to tell the world – your friends know, your family know, why do you need to stand in front of the camera and talk about it?
"They didn't understand the importance of it. Now I see it. I understood before they did how important it is, not only for me, but to be a spokesperson."
Ricky is thankful that he went against their advice, adding: "You know, I pressed send and I was like, 'Oh, that's it?' My assistant who's still my assistant, Paco, he was next to me and I'm like, 'I think I need a hug'."
Despite the emotional moment, Ricky stated: "I wish I could come out 20 times. It felt amazing. Of course, I started crying like a baby."
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