Gus Kenworthy has opened up about the pain of having a secret boyfriend before coming out.
He told The Advocate: ‘Dating in the closet is torture.’
He furthermore added: ‘It’s one of the most difficult things, especially if you are completely closeted. And I was, so I had no one to talk to if something in the relationship was bothering me or if I needed to vent.’
The star is now in a relationship with Gayby actor Matthew Wilkas
Gus won the silver medal in Men’s freestyle skiing at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He also says in the interview he almost came out at Sochi but ‘ultimately it wasn’t really my time.’
He will be going for gold at PyeongChang 2018 in South Korea next week.
‘It was just bullying’
He also opened up about a being bullied by a homophobic member of his industry in the interview. The person later changed tack when Gus did come out in ESPN magazine in 2015.
‘When I started to see my first boyfriend, some of the guys in the industry gave us shit, because suddenly we were hanging out all the time,’ he explained.
‘But there was this one skier who would say really fucked up shit, really rude comments. Actually, it was just bullying.’
The star explains that they later talked on the phone after Gus came out. ‘He was all choked up and said, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know all that time, and if I ever did, I wouldn’t have said anything.” It made me cry.’
