Last week, there was a minor tizzy when it seemed like ‘80s pop star Tiffany drunkenly outed her ex-boyfriend, New Kids On the Block’s Jonathan Knight, on live television. Tiffany claimed that she and Jonathan has dated back in the day, “before” he was gay. This caused a stir, and many people were yelling at Tiffany for publicly outing a dude who hadn’t really made any public statements on his sexuality. A few days after Tiffany’s drunken outburst on Bravo, Jonathan Knight tweeted about the incident, in essence saying that Tiffany shouldn’t worry and that everything was cool between them. Basically, he was a total gentleman, and he sounded like a really nice guy. In any case, the incident showed Jonathan that people are still interested in hearing about him, so he decided to clear up some matters about his sexuality in an exclamation-filled blog post:
“I have never been outed by anyone but myself! I did so almost twenty years ago. I never know that I would have to do it all over again publicly just because I reunited with NKOTB! I have lived my life very openly and have never hidden the fact that I am gay! Apparently the prerequiste to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption “I am gay”. I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected! My belief is that you live your life by example, and not by a caption on a magazine! If there ever has been any confusion about my sexuality, then you are someone that doesn’t even know me!”
“I love living my life being open and honest, but at this time I choose not to discuss my private life any further! My fellow band members don’t discuss their private lives with their loved ones and I don’t feel that just because I am gay, I should have to discuss mine!”
[From Jonathan Knight’s blog post, via Towleroad]
I write like this when I’m emailing friends. I’ll glance over my email, and I’ll release that every sentence is an exclamation (!!!!). As far as what Jonathan wrote… sure. I agree with him and applaud him. Not every gay celebrity needs the cover of People Magazine (“I’M GAY!!”) when they come out. It’s clear that Jonathan has been out and proud for years, and it’s his business. He isn’t lying to anybody and he’s not trying to sell an image of a heterosexual heartthrob for his fans. And by being so straight-forward while maintaining his privacy, I think he’s probably earned himself even more fans.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
“Apparently the prerequiste to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption “I am gay”. I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected!” – LMAO at this. I hate those stupid captions. This statement makes me heart him even more…
haha, he used to be my favorite. i lusted after him when I was younger.
this reminds me of the episode of Seinfeld when elaine dumps a guy for not using an exclamation point on a phone message he took and then she ads exclamation points to a whole book manuscript and gets in trouble for it at work.
Very impressed with him. If he isn’t careful, he could put an end to this gay “controversy” thing all by himself.
Classy guy. I am impressed with the way he’s handled this.
Very classy, and sincere statement. Not everyone wants to flaunt their sexuality.
Awesomely dignified. Kudos to him.
coolest eyes ever..I’m too young to have appreciated NKOTB but Jonathan seems like a cool dude.
Boo to a drunk Tiffany. I guess she’s whacked out because why would she disclose such a personal thing? Tiffany is the lowest of the low! Kudos to Jordan for taking that bad situation and turning it around with class, and hey, he’s a better person than I am regarding Tiffany. Go Jordan!
Jonathan is AWEsome.
@EternalCanadian – did you even read his statement?
1. It was Jonathan…not Jordan.
2. He didn’t care and felt he had been as open as he needed, so her slip of the tongue wasn’t a big deal to him at all.
“My fellow band members don’t discuss their private lives with their loved ones”
If you have to live a private life separate from a loved one, well those people are not really loved then eh?
“I love living my life being open and honest, but at this time I choose not to discuss my private life any further! My fellow band members don’t discuss their private lives with their loved ones and I don’t feel that just because I am gay, I should have to discuss mine!”
Well said and very true.
@10 – Although it is a poorly written statement, I believe he was trying to say the his fellow band members don’t discuss their private lives (you know, the ones involving those they love.)
Don’t care, he is absolutely gorgeous!
oh man! he is beautiful! and i always write this way! 🙂
*sigh* I always fall for the gay ones. Oh well, My Johnathan Knight barbie will ALWAYS be married to my brunette Barbie doll (that one is ME!)
He handled this very well. Good for him 🙂
PURE CLASS………All the way! I love his statement about the magazine covers. I am so impressed, and I agree with other posters. He is TRULY handling this like a gentleman!
A good sentiment ruined by exclamation points. I loathe exclamation points.
I think he can be my new gay dude crush!
I really like how he handled this- I think many other pop stars, especially former ones trying to return to the top, would have used this whole thing as a huge publicity jump, with magazine covers (BETRAYED BY TIFFANY) and over-emotional Today Show interviews. I like that he is just saying “Apparently, it’s only a big deal to you guys”.
You’ve one life and there’s no return and no deposit. One life so it’s time to open up your closet. Life’s not worth a damn till you can say…I am what I am!!
Good job. 🙂
Kudos. Well played.
Eloquently spoken. Good on him!
@Me— thank you!
@Samigirl–awesome. That’s runs along the line of 11 yr old me thinking that I was going to marry John Taylor of Duran Duran b/c we both have brown eyes and share a birthday. Love it.
So very classy. Love it!
And I so agree with him – why do gay celebs have to be “outed” to the public? We don’t expect straight celebs to have a magazine cover with the caption, “I’M HETEROSEXUAL!”
WONDERFUL statement. A class act.
It’s funnny that when I first read the headline I head the same thoughts as the first 4 or 5 lines of Jonathan’s statement. He’s been out for years. So I don’t get why people still insist Tiffany outed him. I don’t understand the “classy” comments. There’s no reason for him to be angry since he was already out. It seems like he feels that this is much a do about nothing. It’s only the media who’s blowing this up just because he didn’t do a public statement.
@Samigirl: You are so cute!
I used to love NKOTB, but my favorite was Joe, I used to also play barbies and marry him all the time hihihihihi
At least it wasn’t written in all caps. But seriously, when people end everything with an exclamation mark, do they not realize it reads like flustered shouting? Very off-putting. Still, punctuation aside, he explained himself well and made an excellent point.
Nice work Jonathan!
He is not lying to the public or portaying a fake straght man/family image to the public, so I 100% agree that he does not have to discuss his private life with anyone if he doesn’t want to.
@Sassy-Unless you’re Jake Gyllenhal!
No offense to Jonathan, but I don’t think he’s really been open and out for 20 years.
They had a whole updated biography with current interviews on the group a year or two ago and he said he didn’t do the groupies back in the day because he was romantically involved with Tiffany.
He was giving the whole image of loyal straighthood which is a seller with the group’s demo. Although, maybe the people that edited the thing or some PR person forced a slant to make it look like he was the quiet, monogamy loving hetero safe for fans to crush on.
In the end, it’s no biggie to anyone but Perez Hilton who’s probably walking on air today.
Oh well, I see he outed himself earlier elsewhere. I wonder why the biography channel doing the updated reunion timed show with new interviews about their whole careers and family lives played it the opposite way.
I bet someone, somewhere decided for him to keep a few female fans in the dark.
LOL @ Pretty Tarheel. Ha.
I remember the rumors from 20 years ago saying that a few members of NKotB were gay. Didn’t care then, don’t care now.
I just wish their music would mature (like they did) so I could be a fan again.
@Zelda: A friend of mine calls exclamation points “the scabies of the internet.”
I do recall years ago when he came “out”, although he didn’t make a real fuss about it, as he spoke/focused more on his challenges with anxiety. I’ll always remember that cause he was my fave NKOTB, I have struggled with severe anxiety myself and questioned my own sexuality. I could so relate then.
He used to be the cutest in NKOTB..Used adore him….
This would be so much better if he wasn’t so emphatic when it came to the exclamation marks! They are really messing with my reading voice! I read the whole statement with an inflection! It just sounded so odd! But yay! OK!
very well done!
He’s obviously very secure with himself and his life. He is being honest about who he is without apologizing for it or engaging in some tabloid confession. I think of him in contrast to Rupert Everett, who is so…angry.
Not really relevant–but he has aged so well! He looks a little like Lee Pace to me, and that’s a good thing.
Ha! Knew it!
Whatever. There is no such thing as a gay boy-bander.
Hahahaha @ Pretty Tarheel. So true.