Darren Hayes thought he was going to "die from AIDS" when he realised he was gay.
Darren Hayes' new album, Homosexual, is out now.
The 50-year-old pop star - who has been married to Richard Cullen since 2013 and was previously married to Colby Taylor -explained that he "didn't understand how sex worked" throughout his "traumatising" childhood as he grew up as a confused teenager at the height of the HIV epidemic.
He said: "As a child, I associated that word [homosexual] with the beginning of HIV and when I was just starting to realise that I like boys, there were these TV ads about AIDS and I thought just because I liked boys I was not only going to get AIDS but that I was going to die.
"But I didn’t understand how sex worked. But that was how much stigma there was around about being gay and how gay people were blamed for this supposed gay plague. This insult of ‘homo’ was what you were called.
"I was bullied so much as a kid - like a lot of gay kids are - and you find that the first people to label you are those who pick up on your sexuality before you’ve really worked it out."
However, the 'Truly Madly Deeply' hitmaker - who is best known as part of 1990s pop duo Savage Garden - was inspired to name his new album 'Homosexual' in an effort to "rid himself" of "internalised homophobia" as he explained that these days he is "nothing but proud" of who he is,
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "So my journey through this was very much to use this word [Homosexual] as a title was really a way to finally put to rest any internalised homophobia that I’ve had. With this career I’ve had, where it took me such a long time to realise I was gay and rid myself of any internalised homophobia that even I had and love myself.
"Now I’ve been married for 17 years to my husband Richard. I just performed at Mardi Gras in Sydney in March and I felt so free and so loved.
"That person is so different to the person I was when I was on ‘Top of the Pops’ performing ‘I Want You’ in skin-tight Jean Paul Gaultier with blue painted nails.
"Back then, I had this incredible George Michael hair but even George Michael wasn’t even out then.
"It was a different world and I inside was a very confused person. But it’s a wonderful feeling to be talking where I feel nothing but proud of who I am."
Darren Hayes' new album 'Homosexual' is out now.
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