Beartooth rock star Caleb Shomo has come out as a proud gay man after being married to his wife Fleur Shomo for more than 14 years.
“There has been a lot of speculation surrounding my personal life lately and I feel I have to set the record straight before it affects my loved ones any further,” he wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
“I’m proud to be gay. This is something I’ve been unraveling and thinking about for quite some time in my life,” Caleb added.
The 33-year-old musician said repressing his sexual orientation was “hard to get over” and said he was “ashamed” that he hadn’t allowed himself to “really dig up my roots for so long.”
“I’ve been hiding my emotions with alcohol for 10 years, and to be honest, when I decided to quit alcohol and focus on exploring why I felt this way for so long, it was a direct path to making peace with my sexuality in the hopes that it would eventually lead to experiencing self-love,” he wrote.
Caleb said he vowed to express himself “with all my heart and all my heart” on his next album.
“I’ll follow you wherever you go. From the music to the lyrical content to the way I portray myself, I won’t water down any part of it,” he wrote.
“I only do what makes me happy on the deepest level and the most honest expression of who I am. I believe it’s impossible to love every part of you if you don’t face every part of yourself head on. I’m ultimately going to be proud of who I am, and I think this is a big part of that journey,” Caleb added.
Former Attack Attack! The vocalist concluded her post by thanking those who showed her love and support.
“For those of you struggling with who you are, give yourself grace. Give yourself patience. Be honest with yourself,” he wrote.
“Work hard instead of thinking you’ll change like me and burying yourself as deep as you physically can. Holding these things around will only hurt you and those around you. Love you all, and I hope this is a step in the right direction to love yourself one day.”
Caleb’s wife, Fleur, also wrote on Instagram that the past few months had been a “very disorienting and difficult time for her and her husband.”
“But I will continue to love, protect and support Caleb. I have cared about his health more than anything else in the world for many years,” she wrote.
The 41-year-old co-host of the My Top 5 podcast said she witnessed the “turmoil and pain” Caleb endured as he struggled with his sexuality, but didn’t know what to do.
“I don’t want anything more than for the other person to be safe, and I’m always asking myself if I’m a bad person for thinking about what this means for my world and the anger that I feel as well,” she said.
“I’m the only one who has to deal with the duality of this situation. It’s incredibly difficult to support him while losing everything,” Fleur added.
“You can love and support someone through the most difficult time in their life, while at the same time feeling completely overwhelmed and lost. You question everything. But I’ve learned that the one thing you don’t have to question is our history. No matter what anyone says, I know that.”
Fleur said her 14-year marriage to Caleb was “amazing and filled with so much fun, adventure and love.”
“I miss my husband more than anything now. Our story was so good and now it’s over,” she wrote.
“We hope that people around the world who are going through this situation can find hope and courage, and we hope that our fans continue to support Caleb.”
Fleur and Caleb married in April 2012, but they have no children.
