Actor Hugh Sheridan, who is primarily known for his work on the Australian family-oriented dramedy Packed to the Rafters, just penned an honest essay about his sexuality.
Said essay, which came out in Stellar Magazine, found Sheridan discussing him being attracted to more than one gender but refusing to label who he is as a result.
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He’s someone who has long faced scrutiny and speculation about his evasiveness when it comes to this matter but now the 35-year-old is putting it all out there for the world to see.
Something Sheridan revealed in the essay was how he had a relationship with a man in his younger years but was advised that it would hurt his career if that was made public. It’s a struggle that other actors, like Matt Bomer, have had to deal with during their time in the industry.
“I’ve never felt I really knew who I was and I didn’t like the sounds of the labels that people were giving me so I decided to say nothing,” he said before talking about how COVID changed his mind on the matter.
“Lockdown gave me time to reflect and it occurred to me that no-one ever sticks up for people who don’t pick a label.”
“Some people are working things out slower than others,” he continued while adding that he was “never ashamed” of his sexuality. “There must be a lot more people out there who feel how I feel – like the words still don’t fit.”
Sheridan then joked about his dating life, or lack thereof, in hopes that it will attract a variety of people his way. “Maybe this is also my way of letting people know that I’m still single, and everyone is on the smorgasbord!”
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The Isn’t It Romantic star once again brought up how he was advised to hide his sexuality for the sake of his career during his essay.
“Figuring out that I connected with the same sex the way I did the opposite sex was almost a relief, so that advice was confusing,” he said. “The way it was explained to me was that women wouldn’t want to pay to see a movie or TV show if they knew they couldn’t have sex with the leading man. And it made me angry.”
He teased his essay on Instagram one day before it came out while promising that this “is only the beginning” for him.