Matt Bomer has talked about the reaction his parents had when he came out as gay. The Magic Mike star grew up in a Christian, conservative household in Texas, where his parents were not accepting of gay people.

He has now revealed how his parents reacted to the news of his coming out in an interview with Out magazine.

He said the LGBT publication: “Telling your family is a huge, huge deal. I really view my life as divided between the time before I told my parents, and the time after. And the decisions I made, and the life I lived, before and after, are vastly different. It’s night and day.”matt bomer for kd

“There was radio silence for a long, long time, at least six months,” he added. “And then I came home and we had the blowup that I’d always feared. But we got that out of the way, and we got down to the business of figuring out how to love each other.”

The actor has since found love, marrying publicist Simon Halls, who he has three children with.

However it took his family a long time to accept the fact of his sexuality.

“I would say within a matter of years, we started to figure it out,” he says, recalling the period of his life.

“It was a struggle. It’s a struggle for anybody to take their paradigms and set of beliefs and understandings and completely flip the script. So I’m empathetic toward everyone.”

He previously recalled dealing with his sexuality as a teen.

Accepting an award from the Inspiration award from the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, he told the audience: “When I was in high school, there was no safe haven, there was no outlet for you to speak your mind. So I did what any self-preserving 14-year-old would do—I signed up for the school play and also the football team to cover my tracks.

“When that happens, when you aren’t allowed to speak about who you are, one of the most authentic parts of who you are, which is who you love or who you’re attracted to, you feel invisible. GLSEN gives visibility and authenticity to kids all across the country.”