Former Australia’s Got Talent Winner and The Voice contestant Jack Vidgen has opened up on the latest edition of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here saying he was worried about coming out as gay because he thought it was seen as “dirty, disturbed and perverted”.
Vidgen has also suggested he knows of 10 or 12 Australian Footballers that are gay.
In a deep and meaningful conversation with AFL legend Robert DiPierdomenico on the latest edition of the show, Vidgen said he was ready to come out earlier in his life but once he became famous it made it a lot more difficult.
“So many people knowing who I was … it wasn’t going to be like (telling) a few friends,” Vidgen said.
With DiPierdomenico asking questions about his relationships Vidgen explained he had a girlfriend for a couple of years in what he suggested was “more like a glorified friendship, I loved her to bits but there was never going to be that extra.”
It was only when he was 19 and he was dating his first guy that they both had the courage, “we came out together to our families, and friends.”
He later explained to Dipper that he was scared to come out because “it becomes something in your head that’s dirty and disturbed … and you think something is perverted when it really isn’t. It’s the absolute opposite. Love is love.”
But when he did come out, “It was one of the most incredible feelings of my life.”
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The conversation continued with other camps mates including former Geelong and Collingwood Footballer Travis Varcoe as they discussed the fact that no AFL player has come out as gay and yet players in the AFLW feel much more at ease to be who they are.
Vidgen started by asking Dipper and Varcoe if anyone had come out on any of their teams.
“No, I never suspected anyone but I’m sure there were gays playing but no one came out,” Dipper explained.
“How many players are in the AFL, like 700 or so,” Varcoe said
“I think I know about 10 or 12 footy players, but I would never say their name, that are gay, but they wouldn’t come out,” Vidgen added.
“It’s a very masculine industry and you also have a really high profile so it would be extremely daunting not knowing if you are going to lose your career if you’re going to lose your friends, if you’ll lose your colleagues and what people may think of you, it would be a really hard thing to go through in that industry.”
Varcoe explained that there is already so much acceptance in the AFL now across multiple issues that surely there is enough support for someone to take the step.
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I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here continues on Network 10 and 10play.com.au
Last Updated on Jan 10, 2021
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