Duncan James: ‘My mum was surprised that I got a girl pregnant after I came out as gay’
Singer Duncan James has spoken about coming out to his mother in Los Angeles, and her surprise when he revealed he was having a child after he came out.
The Blue band member revealed his coming out story at the Winter Carnival, hosted by the Interlaw Diveristy Forum in support of the Albert Kennedy Trust.
Duncan James joked that he was asked to following the footsteps of Sir Ian McKellen who hosted the event the year before.
He said: Coming out, I think you’ll all agree, is one of the hardest things you can do as a gay person. For me it was extremely hard not just to do it to my friends and family, but I had to do it to the world and a fan base who all believed that I was straight and a womaniser.
“I was reading stories in the paper that I was dating people like Geri Halliwell and all sorts of people and of course that wasn’t true. And inside me I had a secret and that secret was that I was gay.
“But I managed to take my mother to Los Angeles on a holiday, which was actually completely premeditated because I wanted to take her somewhere nice and come out to her, and hopefully I wouldn’t feel rejected, is what so many of us actually have had happen and this is what the Albert Kennedy Trust is all about.”
Continuing, he said: “I remember knocking on her bedroom door in the hotel that we were staying in, and I told her shaking, crying, an absolute mess, that I like guys, and that I was gay, and I didn’t quite know what to get from here – I was really nervous, I didn’t know whether she was going to reject me, what she was gonna say.
“She just put her arms around me, and gave me a hug and told me that she loved me, and the next day she said does that mean I’m not going to have any grandchildren. Two months later I told her ‘mum I’ve got something to tell you, I got a girl pregnant’ and she was like ‘WHAT?! I thought you were gay!'”
“The Albert Kennedy Trust helps people not as fortunate as me – people who have confided in their loved ones and have been rejected and thrown out onto the streets. That is something that I think is absolutely appalling – just because of who you are, doesn’t mean you shoud be rejected by your loved ones.”
The Big Reunion star came out as bisexual in an interview back in 2009. He has since identified himself as gay in various interviews.
He has one daughter named Tianie Finn by former girlfriend Claire Grainger
