Celebrities Who Have Faced Gay Rumors (Part 2)

James FrancoThe 21st century actor, artist, intellectual and overall “Renaissance man” has believably played gay characters onscreen numerous times (most memorably as Harvey Milk’s lover in the Oscar-winning Milk), but Franco has downplayed the rumors about his real-life sexuality. “There are lots of other reasons to be interested in gay characters than wanting myself to go out and have sex with guys,” he was quoted by Entertainment Weekly as saying.

Ryan SeacrestSpeculation about the well-groomed TV’s host sexuality has been so rampant, even his one-time girlfriend Julianne Hough thought he was gay: “He totally wasn’t my type,” she said, according to TMZ.com. “I thought he was gay.” Several years earlier, Seacrest himself had addressed the rumors, noting, “I know a lot of gay males who I work with that are fantastic people and I love hanging out with them. But because I hang out and bring gay men into my life, does that mean that I’m gay? I promise you that I very much love women.”

Zoe SaldanaAddressing speculation she might be a lesbian, the self-professed tomboy said she wasn’t bothered by the reports, adding, “People have sometimes told my grandmother, ‘Your granddaughter has a bit of lesbianism in her,'” Saldana said. “It’s that my sisters and I spent all our time among men. We were very popular with them. Our way of thinking is very masculine.”

Queen LatifahThough many have claimed that Queen Latifah is a lesbian, the rapper and actress has refused to discuss her sexuality. In a 2013 Hollywood Reporter interview, Latifah stated, “I don’t feel the need to discuss my private life on this show or any other show,” the 43-year-old star told the magazine’s Marisa Guthrie. “There’s the part of my life that the public and I share together. And there’s the part that’s mine to keep for myself. And that’s mine. For me.”

KaceeThe Limpopo singer has a flair for bright-coloured outfits, and was pictured “kissing” rapper Phyno at the 2014 MAMA Nominees Party in Lagos, both occurrences which has kept the gay rumour mill busy. The suggestion from the ‘kissing’ photo has long since been refuted with the claim that it was a wrong camera angle.

Taylor LautnerHeartthrob Taylor Lautner, best known for his role as Jacob Black on The Twilight Saga, was featured on a fake People magazine cover in 2011 with a caption that read: “Out and Proud.” Lautner spoke with GQ Australia earlier that year and refused those claims about his sexuality and proclaimed, “I’m straight.”

Hugh JackmanHugh Jackman is no stranger to rumors about his sexuality. Despite being married with children, the Les Misérables leading man told The Hollywood Reporter that the gossip “bugs” his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness. He went on to talk about his infatuation with Furness, saying that she is “very beautiful” and “unbelievably fun.”

Whitney HoustonThe late Whitney Houston was subject to rumors about her sexuality dating back to 1985. People speculated about her relationship with her childhood New Jersey friend, Robyn Crawford, who would become Houston’s assistant and creative director. In an interview with Oprah, Houston’s mother, Cissy, spoke up about those rumors and said that she would “absolutely” disapprove if her daughter were gay.

Whoopi GoldbergLGBT ally Whoopi Goldberg has long faced scrutiny about her sexuality. The Oscar-award winning actress and The View co-host once said in a 2006 New York Times interview: “No, I am not a lesbian. I describe myself as heterosexual. I think it is hard to have good relationships with anyone.”

Hulk HoganAfter splitting with his ex, Linda Bollea, she accused Hogan of being gay in her memoir, Wrestling The Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes. The retired wrestler appeared on The Wendy Williams Show last February and told the TV host, “Just to say something spiteful and hurtful, I don’t get it… if it was true and I was gay, I’d embrace it, and I’d tell you guys about it and I’d celebrate it.”

Jake GyllenhaalHollywood hunk Jake Gyllenhaal has faced gay rumors since he played a closeted gay cowboy in the academy-award winning film, Brokeback Mountain. Gyllenhaal denounced such accusations when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2011, speaking about his relationship with his best friend and stylist whom he calls “baby.” Longtime friend Adam Levine called the rumors “very immature and infantile.”

Mariah CareyDespite years of facing people’s thoughts that she may be bisexual, Mariah Carey addressed those rumors when she spoke with The Advocate in 2010. Carey said: “If it makes somebody happy to say that, then whatever, but that’s not the reality. I don’t have a discriminatory policy of who I’m friends with, so yes, I’m friends with women who are gay — gay, straight, it doesn’t matter to me. So I don’t get upset when I hear that, because it is what it is. I guess I could lie about it to seem more exciting.”

Daniel RadcliffeDaniel Radcliffe, who’s an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights, has taken the rumors about his sexuality in good stride. The Harry Potter star, who was told that he had a “gay face” by a random commenter on the Internet, said in an interview with MTV in 2010, “If people want to say that, they can. But I’m not. I’m straight.”

Trey SongzTrey Songz, the R&B singer known for such hits like Bottoms Up and Can’t Help But Wait, first encountered gay rumors when blogs started writing about the artist’s sexuality in 2009. Songz spoke on New York radio station Power 105.1, saying, “The first I heard about it was on a blog about a year ago and I remember the actual day because I was with my manager Kevin. He said, ‘Did you hear about this?’ He said we ignore stuff like that but I was hot (angry) because I love the ladies. What I’ve learned in this business is that people will make their own reality of whatever they want to.”

In December 2012, a Twitter pic of two men kissing surfaced that had everyone pointing their fingers, saying Songz was one of the men in the photo. Songz responded on Twitter: “On my way to Virginia to spend the holidays with my family. No senselessness, lies or hate can take away my joy. #LOVE”. In fact, the picture was taken from Enrique Araujo’s (who looks like Songz) Facebook.

Uti Nwachukwu and Alex EkuboPerhaps the most persistent of gay rumour ever to plague Nigerian celebrity has been the one that trailed actors cum models, Uti Nwachukwu and Alex Ekubo. The two friends shared a flat together, travelled together and attended events together, overwhelming ‘evidence’ that the rumour mill pounced on.

At some point, the former Big Brother star threatened the perpetrators of the rumour: “I am going to say this just once. All false gossip mongers about my sexuality are hereby warned.”

As for Alex Ekubo, in a 2013 Bellanaija interview, he opined that the main reason for the rumors is the public’s desire to tear down success: “I don’t care and I am not bothered. Nigerians have what I call the crab mentality. Have you seen a bunch of crabs in a bucket? When one is trying to come out, the others pull it down. If these insinuations were true, by now there should be a picture to prove it. Look at most successful Nigerian entertainers, they were either tagged gay or Illuminati which I find weird. You see some girls acting their lives away on TV and people tag them as “runs girls”. Almost every young, successful entertainer has a negative tag and it is disheartening.”

Harry Styles And Louis TomlinsonHarry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, best friends and One Direction band members, have been subject to gay rumors for a while now. Tomlinson addressed the gossip saying that it’s started to affect how he and Styles conducted themselves.

“This is a subject that was funny at first, but now is actually hard to deal with in a relationship,” Tomlinson said. “Me and Harry are best friends, people look into our every move – it is actually affecting the way me and Harry are in public,” he is quoted as saying. “We want to joke around, but there seems to be a different rumor every time we do anything. I act the same way with Harry as I do [with] any of the other boys and my childhood friend Stan.”

Will And Jada Pinkett SmithHe’s gay. She’s a lesbian. Both are each other’s “beards.” They are swingers.

Hollywood power couple, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, has long faced an onslaught of rumors facing their relationship, hearing just about everything in the book. The two have also faced multiple divorce rumors with some saying the cause was due to their closeted sexual identities.

Matthew McConaugheyThe Hollywood leading man Matthew McConaughey faced gay rumors surrounding his close relationship with cyclist Lance Armstrong. McConaughey spoke up and famously joked, “We tried it. Wasn’t for us.”

In May 2012, the actor spoke with The Advocate and talked at length about his gay fan base, his thoughts on the gay community and how he’d react if he were to have gay children. He also elaborated on his own gay rumors again, saying, “Well, I’m really secure in my skin. I’m heterosexual, and I’m just fine with that. Those rumors have to make the rounds, and I know that I was fun target for them.”

Dolly PartonThe country and gay icon Dolly Parton has seen her fair share of gay rumors, despite being married to her husband Carl Dean for 46 years. Parton’s relationship with her childhood best friend, Judy, was subject to speculation and the artist compared her rumors with that of Oprah’s, saying, “Like Gayle [King], her friend, Judy, my friend…they just think that you just can’t be that close to somebody,” Parton said. “Judy and I have been best friends since we were like in the third and fourth grade. We still just have a great friendship and relationship and I love her as much as I love anybody in the whole world, but we’re not romantically involved.”

Ne-YoGay rumors have long swirled around R&B singer Ne-Yo and he’s constantly denied them. Ne-Yo, who is a father of two, spoke about all the gossip in a 2012 interview with Upscale magazine, saying, “That shit ate me alive…I was like, where did that come from? Who are these people that have gone to such heights to try to make people believe this? They went all out with that story.”

Kenny ChesneyCountry superstar Kenny Chesney, who was briefly married to actress Renee Zellweger, got most of the heat from the gay rumors when Zellweger cited “fraud” in their annulment papers. Chesney went on record in a 2007 “60 Minutes” interview and said, “It’s not true. Period. Maybe I should have come out and said, `No, I’m not (gay),’ but I didn’t want to draw any more attention to it… I didn’t have to prove to anybody that I wasn’t (gay). I didn’t feel like I really did.”