Duncan James was "really scared" to come out as gay in the early days of Blue. The 44-year-old pop star shot to fame in 2001 alongside Antony Costa, 41, Simon Webbe, 43, and Lee Ryan, 39, as part of the chart-topping boyband but admitted he hid his sexuality during their heyday because they had a "predominantly female" fanbase and he was reluctant to let anyone down.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, he said: "I think going back to 20 years ago when I was secretly in the closet and at the height of my career with Blue, I was really frightened and really scared because we had a predominantly female audience so I didn’t wanna let the boys down, I didn’t wanna let the record company down.
I think I just didn’t wanna let anybody down and get gay-bashed. In the 1970s and 80s, there were awful horrible stories of gays getting queer-bashed and even 20 years ago when I was in the closet I was just worried about all these things.
I put my own mental health on the back burner because I didn’t want to think about it. "I wanted to put my career first, my bandmates, and my family first.
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