Chris Martin admits he was once 'very homophobic': 'I was a kid discovering sexuality'

Taryn Ryder
Updated

Chris Martin is opening up about his sexuality in a candid interview with Rolling Stone. The 42-year-old Coldplay frontman shared what it was like trying to navigate through boarding school with kids "aggressively" telling him he was "definitely gay" because of how he carried himself. Martin, who struggled with the idea because of his religious beliefs, shared it caused him to be homophobic as a young teenager while he tried to figure out his sexuality.

"What happened to me was when I went to boarding school I walked a bit funny and I bounced a bit, and I was also very homophobic because I was like, 'If I'm gay, I'm completely f***ed for eternity'" he admitted. "And I was a kid, like, discovering sexuality. 'Maybe I'm gay, maybe I'm this, maybe I'm that, I can't be this' so I was terrified and then I walked a bit funny and I was in a boarding school with a bunch of quite hardcore kids who were also going through their thing and, for a few years, they would very much say, 'You're definitely gay,' in quite a full-on manner, quite aggressively telling me that and it was weird for me for a few years."

"Did you think you were gay?" asked Rolling Stone founder and editorial director Jann S. Wenner.

"I was like, 'I don’t know and even if I am, I can't be because it’s wrong,'" the singer recalled. "If I am I can’t be."

Martin, who is currently dating actress Dakota Johnson, 30, said it caused a lot of "turmoil."

He added, "I started to worry about it for sure."

Then, when he was about 15, the singer began to realize it wouldn't be a big deal if he was gay. "I was like, 'Yeah so what?' And then it all just stopped overnight. It was very interesting. Once I was like, 'Yeah, so what if I'm gay,'" he explained.

As he started to experience more of the world, Martin said his view on sexuality began to shift. The musician, who grew up in a rural part of southwest England and was raised very religious, also started to examine his relationship with God.

"Just growing up a bit and having a bit more exposure to the world thinking, 'A lot of my heroes are gay' or whatever. Whatever they are, it doesn't really matter," he continued. "So what that did was ease a big pressure and then made me question, 'Hey maybe some of this stuff that I'm learning about God and everything, I'm not sure if I subscribe to all of this particular religion.' So for a few years, that was a bit wobbly and then eventually I just was like, 'Okay, I think I have my own relationship with what I think God is' and it's not really any one religion for me."

Martin's journey eventually led him to Gwyneth Paltrow. They wed in 2003, but announced their decision to consciously uncouple a decade later. Martin and Paltrow share two children, 15-year-old daughter Apple and 13-year-old son Moses.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle’s newsletter.