Jonathan Knightis reflecting on the ways in which he felt immense “pressure” to stay in the closet while at the height of hisNew Kids on the Blockfame.
“CBS [Records] never [told me not to say anything, but] my manager actually did,” he recalled. “He pulled me aside and he was like, ‘If anybody finds out, then your career is over, the New Kids career is over… Sony’s gonna lose money.’ It was just so much pressure and looking back, that’s a lot of pressure to put on somebody who is just trying to figure out the world themselves.”
Knight rose to fame in the late 1980s as a member of the Boston-bred band, which also includes his younger brother Jordan,Joey McIntyre,Donnie Wahlbergand Danny Wood.
Prior to the group’s split in 1994 — they have sincereunited— Knight told Bass that he rarely hooked up with people on the road, and remembered being “so afraid… like what if somebody sees?”
“My manager knew I was gay and he would always conveniently have another kid that was gay around, so a few I hooked up with,” he explained.
Jonathan Knight.Ethan Miller/Getty
The star said that at the time, he was out to his bandmates, but not to the rest of the world. He had recently started dating Harley Rodriguez, whomhe has since married.
“I didn’t want to [come out]. I was just living my life. My brothers and sisters didn’t say, ‘Hey Mom and Dad, we’re straight.’ It wasn’t something I was hiding,” he said. “I mean, I was with Harley. We’d be kissing in public and it just was what it was. And then it was like, no, you have to make a statement, you have to publicly clear the air.”
Jonathan Knight in 1990.Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Knight said the process of coming out publicly was “horrible,” and that he looked to Bass’s journey as a blueprint — but not necessarily one he wanted to follow. The former *NSYNC star came outon the cover of PEOPLEin 2006.
“I looked at what you did, Lance, and I actually think in my coming out statement I was like, ‘I didn’t know I had to be on the cover of a magazine,'” he said.
Still, Knight said he appreciates the ways in which the industry has become more accepting of gay stars, and that now, people accepting awards will often thank their significant others “and nobody flinches.”
Knight and Rodriguez were engaged in 2016, and he revealed in August that they have since tied the knot.
source: people.com
