Clay Aiken Says Half His Fans Bailed when He Came Out – But That was Then

Singer Clay Aiken says that he "lost maybe 50 percent of the fan base" when he came out of the closet five years after his turn on "American Idol." "We are in a very different time" now, he added, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Aiken made his remarks in an interview with People Magazine, THR relayed.

"Shortly after the birth of his son, Parker, in August 2008, the 'American Idol' alum came out as gay on the cover of PEOPLE," the celebrity news magazine recalled. "At the time, Aiken said he wanted to follow through with a promise he made to himself as a new dad."

"It was the first decision I made as a father," People recalled Aiken saying. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."

Revisiting that coming out moment, Aiken said that "so much of his public persona revolved around the speculation about his sexuality," People noted.

But once he revealed the truth, Aiken said, his career took a nosedive.

"Back then it was a big deal," the 46-year-old entertainer told the publication. He pointed to a sudden, sharp decline in ticket sales for "Spamalot," in which he was starring at the time on Broadway, as proof.

"The first four months that I was in, the show was selling out, standing room only," Aiken told People. "You can actually look at the ticket sales the week after that cover came out," he added of the issue of the magazine in which he came out publicly. "It went from selling very well to the week after the cover came out, the ticket sales dropped. 'Spamalot' ended up closing a few months after that."

Echoing comments he made to Variety a few weeks ago, the singer took note of how "A lot of people who come out now end up having boosts in popularity because of it..."

Added Aiken: "That's mind-blowing to me because it's the opposite of what happened when I came out. But it means that there's progress and it means that as a country, we're headed in the right direction."

Aiken also told Variety, "I feel like no one has speculated about shit since.... I went through that crap." Added the singer: "I joke that after I came out publicly, it stopped being a story."

Offering his take on why he thought public interest has shifted away from the question of which celebrities might be LGBTQ+ or not, Aiken offered, "Maybe people got bored after going through six years of it with me."