Clay Aiken randomly brought up Shawn Mendes' sexuality while promoting his new Christmas album.
The 45-year-old “American Idol” graduate sat down with Variety to discuss “Christmas Bells Are Ringing” when he suddenly asked the interviewer: “By the way, did Shawn Mendes come out today?”
“Did you see that video on his Instagram account? I didn't finish watching it because I looked at the time and said, 'Oh my God, I have to go to the computer.' So I don't know if he actually did that.”
It's not clear which Instagram video Aiken was referring to, however, clips of Mendes at one of his concerts in Colorado at which he was “discovering” his sexuality went viral in late October have gone viral.
“I think sexuality is a beautifully complex thing, and it's very difficult to put it into boxes,” the 26-year-old singer explained to his fans at the time.
“It always felt like an intrusion into something very personal to me. Something I was discovering in myself, something I had not yet discovered and still haven't discovered.
Mendes – who has only publicly dated women, including singer Camila Cabello so far – concluded: “The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I'm just figuring it out like everyone else. And I don't really know sometimes and I know in Other times.
Aiken, who came out as gay in 2008, admitted in his Variety interview, saying, “I shouldn't come out if he didn't do it.”
However, the “Invisible” singer added that he doesn't think the media speculates about celebrities' sexuality in the same way they did when he was still in the closet in the early 2000s.
“I feel like no one has speculated about st since 2000 — since I've been through this crap,” he said.
“I joke that after I came out publicly, it stopped being a story. I don't know that anyone has ever treated press that way, like tabloid stories or Diane Sawyer questions.
Aiken speculates that the audience may have “been bored” with this topic after he was its focus.
The political activist also noted that the military's previous “don't ask, don't tell” policy — of allowing members of the LGBTQIA+ community to serve as long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation — ended in 2011, so “America has come to a place with 'gay people a little better'” since then.
“We insisted that our media become more sympathetic,” he added. “The press can't invade the way they used to invade. And that's great.”
Aiken then told Variety that he “didn't mean to derail the interview,” noting that the Mendes clip “just came out.” [his] The screen just before that [he] “Turn on the computer” to sit down.
Page Six reached out to Mendes' reps for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
