Clay Aiken, who placed second on the second season of American Idol in 2003, came out as gay on the cover of PEOPLE Magazine after continuous speculation. Contrary to what happens nowadays, Aiken faced a negative response from his fanbase, who stopped purchasing tickets to the Broadway show he was starring in.
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"It was the first decision I made as a father," Aiken told PEOPLE. He wanted to follow a promise he made to himself when he became the father of his son, Parker, in 2008 "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things," he continued. "I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."
The big revelation about his sexuality came after much speculation around it, saying that "back then it was a big deal." And a big deal it was, as his coming out rubbed his fanbase the wrong way. At the time, he was starring as Sir Robin in "Monty Python's Spamalot" on Broadway, and ticket sales began to crumble.
"The first four months that I was in, the show was selling out, standing room only. You can actually look at the ticket sales the week after that cover came out," Aiken said. "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."
A World, Changed
Clay Aiken estimates that he lost around "50 percent of the fan base." However, since then, he is glad that things have changed nowadays, saying that "we are in a very different time."
"A lot of people who come out now end up having boosts in popularity because of it... That's mind-blowing to me because it's the opposite of what happened when I came out," Aiken said. "But it means that there's progress and it means that as a country, we're headed in the right direction."
Following his run on American Idol, Aiken's debut album, "Measure of a Man," became an instant hit and went multi-platinum. He released several other albums, a bestselling memoir, and even came in second place in the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice. He became a UNICEF ambassador and later ran for Congress in 2014 and 2022. On November 22, 2024, Aiken made his comeback to music, releasing the Christmas album, "Christmas Bells Are Ringing."
