Khalid Speaks On Embracing His Sexuality After Being Outed

Singer-songwriter Khalid spoke about his decision to embrace his sexuality after he was allegedly outed by his ex-boyfriend, Hugo D Almonte. Near the start of the chat, it was brought up to Khalid that he was last on the show in 2017, and at the time he wasn’t out of the closet as gay. “Life is all about ebbs and flows,” he said. “Maybe the version of myself that I came into nine years was that authentic version of myself… As time goes on and I realize, ‘Okay, I’m not just some new kid on the block anymore.’ I start to sit back, like, ‘Well, what becomes new and exciting for me?’ What’s new and exciting is allowing myself to finally be open, because I feel like my privacy was weaponized against me on a global public scale, which only makes me want to be more open.” The incident he’s referring to is when R&B singer Hugo D Almonte outed Khalid’s sexual orientation on social media last year. Following the comments from Almonte, Khalid confirmed his sexuality in a tweet with a rainbow flag. “There y’all go,” he wrote. “Next topic please.” Khalid was asked about the incident by Sang. “Well, to talk about my relationship to what they did with me… I feel like, when it happened, it was random as fuck,” he said. “When you’re like half a decade removed from a situation from someone and it comes back the way that it did, it’s just confusing. … I was a little distraught, a little confused when it happened.” Khalid realized that Almonte wanted to “upset” him by outing him, and instead, he has committed himself to making the most of his sexuality being public knowledge. “I’m going to turn everything that’s weaponized against me and use it for my own ammunition,” he said. “I feel like there’s a group of people in this world that feel like being gay is a really bad thing. And I’m like, to say that being myself is bad would be limiting myself from having so much fucking fun. Khalid was also asked if he ever had plans to come out, and explained that he was working on his new album, After the Sun Goes Down, before he was outed. The album does feature some lyrics about his sexuality, and it would mark the first time he discusses the subject in his music. “I knew that I wanted it to be upbeat, and to me, upbeat music just feels like liberation and freedom,” he added. “I intended on being completely honest, and it’s unfortunate that someone got to expose something so personal to me. But maybe it sped up the process.

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