Aussie swimming champion and multiple Olympic medallist Ian Thorpe spoke publicly about his sexuality for the first time last year, in a lengthy interview with Michael Parkinson.
In the year or so since, he has stayed clear of the press, taking time to adjust, but this Wednesday, the ABC will air a new interview with Julia Zemiro, Thorpe’s first since coming out.
Thorpe thought that his life would change after his announcement, but surprisingly, he told Zemiro that things proved to be “no different” after he came out on television.
In one section of the interview, released in advance of Wednesday night’s broadcast, Thorpe explained to Zemiro why he did not speak about his sexuality earlier in his career.
“Part of me felt you shouldn’t have to and it was just something I had never felt was appropriate,” he said. “Before then, it was something I had never been comfortable with talking about to anyone, let alone the world.”
Thorpe also spoke to Zemiro about his battle with depression, saying “for me, nearly every day is completely normal, then I have periods where it’s a struggle for me to get out of bed, where it’s almost at a chronic level that it just becomes really restrictive in your life.”
During his interview with Parkinson last year, Thorpe spoke about how he came to the realisation that he was gay at the age of 16, but that attending an all-boys school, he kept it quiet, for fear of bullying.
A world champion in his teens, Thorpe found himself thrust into the public eye, and when questioned about his sexuality, he told Parkinson that “the lie became so big that I didn’t want people to question my integrity.”
Looking back on this in his recent interview with Julia Zemiro, Thorpe says that the attention and pressure cost him some of his childhood, and that he would tell his younger self “don’t grow up so fast.”
Thorpe’s interview with Zemiro can be seen on the ABC’s Home Delivery at 9pm on Wednesday.
via News Limited
Photo: Matt King / Getty Images Sport
Photo: Matt King / Getty Images Sport
