Ricky Martin Discusses Struggle With Leno

Ricky Martin spoke with Jay Leno about the contradiction between his public persona as a straight sex symbol and his private gay life in the years before he came out.

TV Squad
reports on the interview, which aired Monday night.

“Being Ricky Martin, what Ricky Martin represented back then and what I was feeling was not compatible at all,” said the author of the autobiography Me. “I was the sex symbol and I needed to dance and I needed to make girls crazy and I couldn't say that I was gay," he said. "It was a lot of struggle."

"What I was feeling, according to what I had in my mind, was evil," he added, before proclaiming that he is very happy to be living an openly gay life today.

Martin even joked about the lack of surprise many people expressed upon his confirmation that he was gay. Watch the interview.