British crooner and breakout star Sam Smith made headlines earlier this year when he publicly came out, revealing that much of his debut album, In The Lonely Hour, was about another man. But only recently has the 22-year-old singer discussed coming out at length and why he felt it was important to do it so early in his career.
During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Smith tells the daytime host that he knew he was gay when he was just a toddler. “I came out when I was like 4 years old,” he says. “My mom said she knew when I was like three. So I didn’t have to actually properly come out.”
But why did he come out publicly just ahead of his album release? “It felt like a brave thing to do as well I wanted to do it before because if I did it afterwards people probably would have thought I was lying just to sell records,” Smith says. “My aim is to tell people how good it’s been for me so that, hopefully, gay men or parents with gay children can look at my story and think, ‘Wow, that’s how it should be. That’s what we can work towards.’ ”
