Jonathan Bailey gets candid about his sexuality and coming out journey
Bridgerton heartthrob Jonathan Bailey has opened up about the long road to his coming out.Bailey, who currently stars in the West End play C*ck, came out publicly in 2020.
Now, the 33-year-old has shared further details about his journey and how pressures within the showbiz world almost kept him in the closet.In an interview with GQ, Bailey recalls a moment early in his career where a fellow actor was told, “There’s two things we don’t want to know: if you’re an alcoholic or if you’re gay.”For Bailey, the off-hand comment had profound effects.“All it takes is for one of those people in that position of power to say that, and it ripples through,” he said. “So, yeah, of course, I thought that.
Of course, I thought that in order to be happy I needed to be straight.”Fortunately, that fear didn’t last forever.“I reached a point where I thought, ‘F*ck this, I’d much prefer to hold my boyfriend’s hand in public or be able to put my own face picture on Tinder and not be so concerned about that than get a part’,” he further explained.Related: Taron Egerton and Jonathan Bailey are about to do some serious ‘C*ck’Bailey also says that his struggle with keeping his sexuality private has profoundly affected how he approaches a role.“You put your life experiences into [the work],” he explained. “What’s most interesting is not necessarily having to talk about what that is, and keeping a sense of privacy.”Upon his coming out in 2020, he told Ian McKellen that he’d never felt a need to deny his sexuality, but he did go through a long period where he preferred to keep it private.“This was at a stage where perhaps I was coming to terms with my own sexuality, I hadn’t necessarily hidden it,” he said. “But I’ve never been not honest about it..
