Will Young has claimed show bosses told him to keep his sexuality a secret when he appeared on TV talent show Pop Idol. Shortly after beating runner-up Gareth Gates to be crowned winner, the Leave Right Now singer, 45, came out publicly in 2002 amid reports a newspaper was planning to out him. Addressing the issue at the time in an interview when he was 23, Young said: “For me it's normal and nothing to be ashamed about.
I'm gay and I'm comfortable with that. I really don't know what the fuss is about.” Young has now given a further insight into exactly what went down two decades ago while appearing as a guest on Rylan Clark’s new BBC Sounds podcast How To Be In The Spotlight.
He explained: “I was told not to say anything. I just told them I wasn't going to do that. “Basically told them to "f**k off".
I said, "I didn't come out and go through all those years being terrified of it to be kicked back in the f*****g closet!" I always thought it was just unnecessary stress.” The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant also claimed that there were further attempts to cover up his sexuality later on in his career, including a record company executive ordering him to re-record his signature hit “because he “sounded too gay”. He said: “I had a record company executive who said I sounded too gay on Leave Right Now so I needed to re-record it.
“I was working with Annie Lennox's producer, and we just sent him the same vocal back again and he just went, ‘yeah, love.