NEWS'Leave Him Alone': 'Creepy' Clay Aiken Bashed for Bizarrely Speculating About Shawn Mendes' Sexuality During Interview
Clay Aiken claimed 'since I came out publicly' coming out 'stopped being a story.'
According to the internet, Clay Aiken needs to mind his own business!
In a recent interview, the American Idol alum, 45, bizarrely mentioned Shawn Mendes’ sexuality despite being unprompted by the journalist.
Clay Aiken asked his interviewer, 'Did Shawn Mendes come out today?'
During the sit-down to promote his new album, Christmas Bells Are Ringing, he suddenly asked, “By the way, did Shawn Mendes come out today?”
“Have you seen this video on his Instagram? I didn’t finish watching it because I looked at the time and I was like, ‘Oh God, I gotta get on the computer.’ So I don’t know if he really did,” Aiken continued. “I shouldn’t out him if he didn’t.”
After Aiken’s remarks hit social media, he was slammed for speculating about the “Stitches” singer’s sexual preferences.
“Leave Shawn alone. He doesn’t owe anyone anything,” one user wrote, while another called Aiken “creepy.”
Shawn Mendes told fans at his recent Colorado concert that 'sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing.'
One more touched on the ‘00s star’s irrelevance, stating, “Lol forgot all about Clay Aiken.”
While it is unclear what clip of Mendes Aiken was referring to during the Q&A, the 26-year-old referenced his sexuality during his Colorado concert in October.
“I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes,” he told the audience at the time. “It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover it.”
Mendes added, “The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. And I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times.”
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Clay Aiken claimed the media hasn't speculated much about people's sexually 'since 2000 — since I went through that c---.'
Elsewhere in the interview, Aiken — who came out as gay in 2008 — discussed how much the media discussed his sexuality back then.
“I feel like no one has speculated about s--- since 2000 — since I went through that c---,” he claimed. “I joke that after I came out publicly, it stopped being a story. I don’t know that anybody has had press in that way, like tabloid stories or questions by Diane Sawyer.”
Aiken suggested that readers likely “got bored” with the topic.
The “Invisible” vocalist also said that America “came to terms” with “gays a little better” after the former military policy “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ended in 2011.
Shawn Mendes told fan that 'the real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone.'
“We have insisted our media become more empathetic,” he continued. “Press can’t invade in the way they used to be able to invade. And that’s great.”
Aiken then apologized, saying he “didn’t mean to derail” the interview, adding clips of Mendes “just came up on [his] screen right before [he] turned on the computer.”
Variety interviewed Aiken.
