CBS Sunday Morning‘s Tracy Smith sat down with Ricky Martin as he begins a Las Vegas 5,200-seat residency, to talk about his career, and how coming out has changed his life.
Martin said he had an epiphany when he had his children: “If I am not honest with my kids, what am I teaching them? I'm teaching them to lie.”
And it was that thought that spurred his coming out, which he did on his website, writing, “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.”
“I struggled so much. It was extremely painful, Martin added. “When I finally sent that tweet and I shared with the world my sexual orientation, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is it?' Perfect. Perfection.”
As for why he stayed in the closet so long:
“I was afraid of rejection. First of all, for many years everyone, a lot of people told me that my feelings were evil — ‘What you're feeling is not godly.' I'm not a good person. If I'm feeling this, I'm not a good person. Not more of that. I'm a good person. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with me. No. No. Enough. Not more of that. And I've been the happiest man ever since.”
RELATED: Ricky Martin Tells Andy Cohen That He Met His Fiancé Jwan Yosef on Instagram: WATCH
Martin says that he and fiancé Jwan Yosef are making plans for children. He's not sure when the wedding date will be.
Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUIVRQSY3CY