Queer Eye star Karamo Brown has revealed the devastating impact coming out as gay had on his relationship with his father.
The 38-year-old 'culture expert' and father of two shared his story during an emotional conversation with his dance partner, Jenna Johnson, backstage on the set of Dancing With The Stars in the US.
“There’s something about my kids that brings it out of me, but it’s also because of the relationship that I have with my father,” he told Johnson, explaining that he'd dedicated the previous week’s performance to his children.
He continued: “Growing up, my father was my hero. He called me his champion son. But then, as I started to discover who I am, things changed dramatically."
Brown explained that when he came out to his father as a 17-year-old, their relationship ended.
“It split the family apart and we didn’t speak for 10 years,” he added. “I just prayed every day that one day, we could actually get back to being a family again.”
However, years down the track his father reached out to apologise and the pair were able to begin to rebuild their former bond - so much so that Brown's father recently travelled to California to lend his support and watch his son dance on Dancing With The Stars.
"We really just started to reconcile our relationship," Brown said.
“If there’s anything I expect from my father, it’s just learning how to love me unconditionally."
Earlier this year, Brown revealed that he first learned he was father to a 10-year-old named Jason via a letter in 2006.
Speaking to People magazine, Brown said: "I was scared. I realised that I created this child who I had no idea about that’s living there, that I now messed him up.
"There’s something about the first moment of seeing your child,” he continued. “All the pieces of me that I felt were missing got sewn up the minute I saw his face. I looked at this little fourth-grade boy, and I thought, 'I can do this'.”
