Barry Manilow opened up about keeping his sexuality a secret due to his fears coming out would jeopardize his career.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 80-year-old singer, who revealed he was gay in 2017, shared that he struggled with hiding his sexual orientation for years.
“I didn’t want my career to go away. I find it irresistible. I’m grateful for it. Nevertheless it was a burden to keep it quiet,” Manilow said. “I used to be all the time anxious.
“Every interview, ‘They’re going to ask me whether I’m gay or not.’ No person ever did, by the best way. They never asked me the $64 query.”
The Grammy Award winner recalled an exchange that he said he had with Clive Davis within the Nineteen Eighties during which the record producer noted that music legend Elton John’s career was damaged after he revealed his sexual orientation.
“He said, ‘You already know, Elton John got here out as bisexual. No artist should ever do this. It’ll hurt your career,’” Manilow told the outlet.
John, 76, got here out as bisexual on the age of 29 in a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone. The “Bennie and the Jets” singer was a worldwide rock star on the time. When he was 45 in 1992, John said he was “quite comfortable being gay” during one other interview with Rolling Stone.
Davis, 91, revealed that he was bisexual in his 2013 memoir, “The Soundtrack of My Life.” The five-time Grammy Award winner, who was previously married to Janet Adelburg and Helen Cohen, wrote that he has had relationships with men for the reason that late Seventies.
Nonetheless, Davis told The Hollywood Reporter he didn’t recall having the conversation that Manilow remembered.
“We never went there,” Davis told the outlet. “Had it come up, to analyze what the impact can be, I’d have said it’s a dangerous proposition to a career. But we never had the conversation about whether he should come out because he never said to me that he was gay.”
Manilow met his husband Garry Kief in 1978, and the 2 married in April 2014. The singer was previously married to his highschool sweetheart Susan Diexler. The 2 tied the knot in 1964 but had their marriage annulled a 12 months later.
The singer explained his decision to hide his sexuality in a 2017 interview with People magazine during which he revealed that he was gay for the primary time.
In the course of the interview, Manilow discussed his longtime romance with Kief. In 2015, reports of his sexuality and marriage to Kief first emerged, which he described as “a blessing and a curse.” He told People he kept his sexuality hidden out of fear that he can be letting down his fans.
“I assumed I can be disappointing them in the event that they knew I used to be gay. So, I never did anything,” Manilow explained.
Nonetheless, Manilow shared that his fans were supportive when he got here out.
“Once they came upon that Garry and I were together, they were so completely satisfied. The response was so beautiful — strangers commenting, ‘Great for you!’ I’m just so grateful for it,” he said.
The Recent York native told People he knew he had met the appropriate person when he first began dating Kief.
“I knew that this was it,” Manilow recalled. “I used to be certainly one of the lucky ones. I used to be pretty lonely before that.”
Manilow said he has all the time wanted to keep his private life out of the highlight.
“I’m so private. I all the time have been,” he said.
During a 2017 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Manilow opened up about being a stepfather to Kirsten Kief, 47, Kief’s daughter from a previous marriage.
“We’ve a daughter, Garry’s biological daughter, Kirsten, and we raised her together all these years,” the “Copacabana” singer said. “Kirsten’s turned out to be one of the beautiful and smartest women you’ll ever meet.”
In an October interview with People, Manilow shared his joy over becoming a grandfather for the primary time after Kirsten adopted a baby girl.
“Garry’s daughter Kirsten adopted a bit of girl, and so I’m now a grandfather,” he said. “I’ve never, ever considered having a baby or having anything to do with [being] a father or any of that.
“I’m watching this little girl — she’s 2½ — grow up and learn. This can be a brand latest experience for me, and I actually am having fun with it.”