Jason Mraz took his time when setting the record straight about his sexuality.
During a recent appearance on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's "Dinner's On Me" podcast, the "I'm Yours" singer, 47, revealed what kept him from coming out until well into his adult years.
"In the '90s, being gay was like [the] punchline of a joke and I didn't want to be the punchline of a joke," Mraz told the Modern Family alum, 48, while noting that he kept his "nose down" so he could figure out "ways I could instead get out and see the world one day."
The Dancing With the Stars alum grew up in the suburbs of Virginia, where he feared he wouldn't be accepted for who he truly was. "I still took with me the conservative street that I grew up on, and that was very hard to ignore or to break out of," he revealed. "I was very shy and scared of what my family would say, or what my hometown would think or just whatever."
Mraz clarified he didn't "want to throw anybody under the bus because my parents are very supportive. I love them very much."
In 2018, the "Lucky" artist, who split from ex-wife Christina Carano in 2023, revealed he is attracted to both men and women. "I’ve had experiences with men, even while I was dating the woman who became my wife. It was like, 'Wow, does that mean I am gay?’” he said during an interview at the time.
For the musician, it took awhile for him to accept all of the different faccets of himself. "I had to play out a lot of other scenarios before I arrived here. It’s both hard to do those and hard to unravel those, and what I’m basically describing is a divorce, you know?" he admitted in a 2023 interview with GLAAD. "And that’s very hard. You carry a lot of shame, guilt."
"You want to heal as many relationships of the past as possible and at the same time, step into this new acceptance and new identity or whatever I’m claiming, and that’s also hard," Mraz added of his journey.
A big part of his healing process was competing on Season 32 on DWTS and showing off his dance moves. "All day you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, and that can be hard for anybody, any human, to accept themselves looking in the mirror," Mraz explained of jumping into the high-pressure ABC show. "Dance is an amazing medium for that transformation and accepting of one’s self."
Billboard conducted the 2018 interview with Mraz.
