American Idol's Sanjaya Malakar Comes Out as Bisexual, Reacts to Being Called 'Gay' as a Teen
justjared.comSanjaya Malakar, who shot to fame as a Top 10 finalist on American Idol season six, is opening up about his sexuality.
The former singer, who is now 32, came out as bisexual during an interview on The Adam Shank Show podcast and he also discussed what it was like to be called “gay” in his teenage years. Sanjaya was just 17 while competing on the show, on which his vocals were criticized for being “utterly horrendous” by judge Simon Cowell.
He revealed during the interview that he’s now working as a pastry chef and bartender. Click inside to check out what Sanjaya said in the interview… “I identify as bisexual,” Sanjaya said (via People). “At the time [that I was on American Idol], I did not know, which was why it was so weird for me.” “I had a hard time figuring out how to interact with young boys because my dad’s from India and grew up in a temple, so there was never like, ‘This is how you are a boy,’” Sanjaya said about his upbringing. “And then, my mom is an A-type personality, Italian-American woman, and [so are] her sisters and my sisters and all of that, so growing up I was already the awkward theater kid.” He added, “I always got along with theater kids.
I always got along with gay kids and girls, so I was like, ‘OK, these are my people.’ But I don’t know. Everyone keeps telling me that I am gay, and I’m like, 7.
