What you need to know
Jonathan Bailey recalls how his sexuality shaped his formative years.
PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive spoke to Sky News about his experience growing up gay and how it affected his school life.
“At various points in my life I felt scared, I felt alone and I felt completely limited,” the Wicked star, 37, said.
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Bailey is an ambassador for Just Like Us, a British non-profit organization that works to support LGBTQ+ young people in schools.
The organization’s research found that LGBTQ+ people between the ages of 11 and 18 are twice as likely to experience anxiety and depression and to be bullied.
“I’ve been through all of that,” the actor told Sky News, referring to the statistics. “It became clear pretty early on that something very specific and clear to me about who I was wasn’t safe and wasn’t being celebrated.”
“It feels like you’re wearing a straight jacket,” he added.
Earlier this month, Bailey was named PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive. He is the first man to publicly announce that he is gay.
The Bridgerton actor reflected on the honor in an interview with Forbes and expressed his excitement about the opportunity for the LGBTQ+ community.
“There’s nothing sexier than progress,” he said. “Of course, when that opportunity presented itself this year, there was no way I wouldn’t step into that corner.”
“There’s something about knowing when that invitation arrives. It’s great to be able to accept it without a second thought, knowing that it’s not only a meaningful and impactful honor, but also an incredibly hilarious honor,” Bailey added. “That’s not lost on me at all.”
After Bailey was awarded the honor, the nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD released a statement celebrating the “pop culture milestone.”
“For decades, LGBTQ actors have been excluded from the conversation surrounding lead roles and blockbuster movie franchises,” said Anthony Allen Ramos, vice president of communications and talent at GLAAD. “To see an openly gay actor appear in one of the most successful movies of recent times and be celebrated like this sends a powerful message to the industry that audiences everywhere know that authenticity is appealing.”
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In a cover story interview with PEOPLE magazine, Bailey opened up about how she’s gotten more comfortable in her own skin as she’s gotten older.
“At different moments in my life, I’ve thought, ‘I have this,’ but sometimes I’ve run into deep fear and self-doubt. When I was really young, I was very confident about who I was, and maybe as I grew up, I lost that,” he said.
“We’re all trying to get back to basics, right? But I was swimming in the ocean with some good friends about an hour ago and my skin was feeling fine,” Bailey continued.
