Ricky Martin promoted his new book on Jay Leno’s show last night and Jay took the opportunity to ask him about his struggle to come to grips with his homosexuality and how his life has changed since coming out of the closet.

Ricky confirmed that while he is still a proud homosexual (love how he half-stands and does a mini-double fist pump after confirming this,) that he understands why both he and countless other people have a hard time coming out. Ricky said, “Being Ricky Martin, what Ricky Martin represented back then and what I was feeling was not compatible at all. I was the sex symbol and I needed to dance and I needed to make girls crazy and I couldn’t say that I was gay. It was a lot of struggle.”

My only problem with that statement is that most of the best dancers I know are gay people, so I don’t know how that ties into what he’s talking about.

He also added that his religion and culture played a large role in his hesitation to come out saying, “What I was feeling, according to what I had in my mind, was evil.”

Here’s to being honest with yourself and proud of who you are no matter how long it takes (even if the truth is obvious to everyone else on the planet,) right guys?!

Wonder if Barbara Walters wants to take credit — again — for this public revelation.

Either way, whatevs … Ricky Martin (even though he did take part in Menudo) is fabulous and amazing and deserves to be happy one way or another.  He didn’t owe the public an explanation or any retorts to the decade of gay-taunts and speculation regarding his sexuality, but he’s obviously comfortable enough in his own skin to address what so many people have questioned him about in the past.

On his blog, Martin states:

A few months ago I decided to write my memoirs, a project I knew was going to bring me closer to an amazing turning point in my life. From the moment I wrote the first phrase I was sure the book was the tool that was going to help me free myself from things I was carrying within me for a long time. Things that  were too heavy for me to keep inside. Writing this account of my life, I got very close to my truth. And this is something worth celebrating.

Many people told me: “Ricky it’s not important”, “it’s not worth it”, “all the years you’ve worked and everything you’ve built will collapse”, “many people in the world are not ready to accept your truth, your reality, your nature”. Because all this advice came from people who I love dearly, I decided to move on with my life not sharing with the world my entire truth.  Allowing myself to be seduced by fear and insecurity became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage. Today I take full responsibility for my decisions and my actions.

If someone asked me today, “Ricky, what are you afraid of?” I would answer “the blood that runs through the streets of countries at war…child slavery, terrorism…the cynicism of some people in positions of power, the misinterpretation of faith.” But fear of my truth? Not at all!  On the contrary, It fills me with strength and courage. This is just what I need especially now that I am the father of two beautiful boys that are so full of light and who with their outlook teach me new things every day. To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids where born with. Enough is enough. This has to change. This was not supposed to happen 5 or 10 years ago, it is supposed to happen now. Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment.

These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.

What will happen from now on? It doesn’t matter. I can only focus on what’s happening to me in this moment. The word “happiness” takes on a new meaning for me as of today. It has been a very intense process. Every word that I write in this letter is born out of love, acceptance, detachment and real contentment. Writing this is a solid step towards my inner peace and vital part of my evolution.

I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.

RM

Martin is clearly the well-adjusted, super-dad to twin boys, and above all is accepting of himself in a capacity where others’ opinions just don’t matter. Congratulations to Ricky for rising above and not giving a fuck about what people have to say. Haters in this kind of situation often have it all wrong anyway.

In a recent interview with Queen of the Stone-Age, Barbara Walters, there appear to be some regretful vibes floating around.

Walters, who infamously interviewed Ricky Martin in 2000, claims that her “push” for Martin to acknowledge which team he pitched for inadvertently ruined his career.  Although Barbara has never shied away from interrogating celebrities about their sexual orientation, Walters claims that the interview with Ricky Martin was her’ most regrettable interview to date.

“In 2000, I pushed Ricky Martin very hard to admit if he was gay or not, and the way he refused to do it made everyone decide that he was. A lot of people say that destroyed his career, and when I think back on it now I feel it was an inappropriate question.”

Whether he is or isn’t or was or wasn’t doesn’t really amount to anything. It’s not like questions like those are really relevant, anyway.  But, Barbie, dear, I wouldn’t take it to heart.  Martin’s career was probably over before it began as it were.  For Christ’s sake, he started off with Menudo. If that’s not preemptive career suicide, nothing is.

Ricky Martin appeared at Armani’s 5th Avenue store opening in New York City wearing a purple satin scarf.  Is that an ascot?  I never know.  Either way, the last wisp of imagined heterosexuality has officially been erradicated.

Also there, Victoria Beckham looking as muscular as ever, Solange Knowles wearing a bunch of shit that doesn’t match, and John Mayer.

Do you guys ever have those days at work where you’re like, “Whatever happens today, I can’t possibly do anything productive?” I’m having one of those days. I keep trying to, like, do my job, and something shiny always distracts me. Like, one of the DVD editors for Film.com just got the Blu-Ray version of The Man Who Fell to Earth, which is like this indie sci-fi flick from the ’70s where David Bowie stars as an alien living in America with a British accent and everyone just generally appears to be high the whole time. I mean, just watching it makes you think you might be a little high. There’s also a scene where David Bowie has alien sex. Honestly. Like, he doesn’t have a penis, he just has a nub, and then they goo all over each other and that’s how aliens have sex. I dunno. But, like, half the Film.com team just spent a portion of the afternoon watching David Bowie have goo-sex on Blu-Ray (which, incidentally, had phenomenal quality for a movie made in the ’70s).

Anyway, here’s a bunch of new pics of Ricky Martin and the twins he had through a surrogate, Matteo and Valentino, who are four months old here. The pics will be running in a variety of publications this week.

Ricky does an extensive interview with Hola magazine for their spread, and at no point are they like, “So, you’re totally gay, right?” which he totally is. I really wish that he’d come out. He’s a fantastic example of a gay man raising a beautiful family through non-traditional means and I wish he’d be willing to talk about it and be a positive gay role model. I think it would do a lot of good. I mean, frankly, it’s not like he has this fantastic career to protect at this point. Just come out and talk about it, Ricky!

“We aren’t jumping like we usually do. We don’t think he is going to tell the backstory, so the whole thing just seems kind of icky … When someone seems like they are hiding something, it’s a big turnoff to the public, who want to share in celebrities’ lives. No one really cared about Clay Aiken becoming a single dad, either.”

Tabloid mag editors dish on why nobody wants to run a big story on Ricky Martin’s mysteriously sourced new twin boys.