‘VIOLATED’

Ricky Martin Had ‘a Little PTSD’ After Barbara Walters’ Questions on Sexuality

Years before he publicly came out, the pop star was cornered over his sexual orientation in a TV interview that he says still haunts him.

Two decades after Ricky Martin shot to fame with his hit “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” the pop star says he’s still scarred by an interview where he was cornered over his sexuality. Speaking to People for the magazine’s second annual Pride issue, Martin recalled Barbara Walters confronting him on national television several years before he came out publicly. “You could stop these rumors,” Walters said of speculation about the singer’s sexuality in the 2000 interview. “You could say, ‘Yes I am gay or no I’m not.’” Martin, clearly taken aback by the question, shot back at the time, “I just don’t feel like it.” Now Martin says that moment has stayed with him all these years. “When she dropped the question, I felt violated because I was just not ready to come out. I was very afraid. There’s a little PTSD with that,” he said. Martin went on to say it “felt amazing” when he finally did come out, announcing in a post on his website about 10 years later that he was “proud” and “blessed” to be a “homosexual man.”