Matt Bomer Opens Up About Perez Hilton Outing Him In His Early Career
Image: Matt Bomer in 'Papi Chulo'.
Matt Bomer has opened up about the weird times he experienced when Perez Hilton made his private life public in the early 2000’s.
Bomer opened up to Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his podcast Dinner’s On Me about his experiences recently.
Matt Bomer and Perez Hilton
The early 2000’s were a weird time for the internet, as Matt Bomer is well aware of.
In a time before social media had really taken off celebrities lacked their own voice and presence online, while tabloids began to turn digital.
One of those online tabloids was Perez Hilton, who many regarded as pushing the boundaries at the time.
Perez made a name for himself spreading gossip about celebrities and their private lives through his very popular website, which eventually made a celebrity out of Perez himself.
One of the celebrities that found himself in the spotlight at the time was gay actor Matt Bomer, although he wasn’t a huge name at the time he became tabloid fodder for Perez Hilton regularly.
“It was a time when folks could kind of take over your own personal narrative before you even had a chance to,” he told Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
“I remember outlets like Perez Hilton talking about my personal life before I had ever had a chance to even do it myself. And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to; I didn’t even have an opportunity to” he continued.
Whilst his profile at the time didn’t warrant being ‘outed’ as he wasn’t a big enough name, the discussion of his private life was still taken over by Perez and others.
“No media outlet was ever going like ‘Hey!’ I just didn’t have a career that warranted that,” he said.
“It felt kind of unfair to me, that that was stolen by people who did have a microphone at the time.”
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However in 2012 Bomer officially took the reigns of his own story when he came out at the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards when he was honoured for his HIV activism.
Bomer came out by acknowledging his husband and their children during his speech.
“I’d really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry. Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment,” he said at the time.
He was motivated to do so to empower his family as he didn’t want them “to feel like they were some kind of shameful secret or something I was sweeping under the rug so I could have a great career.”
Bomer and his husband Simon married in 2011, he said it “was very chill and very small—just our closest and dear ones. There is a security, a validity. It’s just a feeling, I think—something about saying vows in front of the people around you who love and support you. I think it was good for our family.”
The pair are parents to three children, a pair of twins born in 2008 and a child born in 2005.
Matt Bomer most recently received critical acclaim for his role in the gay love series Fellow Travellers and is current starring in the new Disney+ gay sitcom Mid-Century Modern alongside fellow queer actor Nathan Lane, which also featured Jesse Tyler Ferguson in a recent episode.
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