Sitting down with the i, O’Neill revealed that he was told to downplay his sexuality by colleagues. “Like most LGBT+ people, I’ve been called names all my life.
I’ve been advised by people in my industry to ‘play down’ my sexuality – and I have done,” he said. “Once, I was in a meeting at a production company in London to pitch ideas for a new programme.
I guess I was getting excited about an idea and talking about it in an excitable way… “I found out afterwards that one of the leaders of the meeting said: ‘He’s gayer than we expected.’ I never got a call from them again.” The TV presenter described the experience as a “huge blow” and he even questioned if he should “hide” that side of him.