Music legend Barry Manilow has spoken up about why he waited until 2017 to come out as gay, saying he feared the impact it would have on his career.
“It would have killed my career," he told the Daily Mirror. "Immediately.”
He continued: “It was stupid then but it was true. Everybody knew it, we had to watch out for making a mistake. Not that everybody didn’t know, people are very smart."
“I thought I wasn’t hiding anything, but I was also not publicising it. If I publicised it, especially in the 70s and 80s - no way.”
Manilow, 75, came out during a cover interview with People magazine in 2017, later describing the positive reception he'd had from fans.
“You should walk down the street with me one day. These strangers say the most beautiful things to me. They thank me for helping them through their lives,” Manilow said.
Barry met his husband Garry in 1978. They married in 2014, over two years before he publicly came out.
