Wayne Brady, the host of Let’s Make a Deal and former stalwart Whose Line Is It Anyway performer, among other projects, came out as pansexual in a lengthy first-person piece published in People on Tuesday.
Brady, 51, shared a simple working definition of pansexuality: “Bisexual—with an open mind!”
His embrace of his identity was a long time coming: Brady said that he’s been in “a lot of therapy,” and that he was shaken deeply by comedian Robin Williams’ death in 2014. He realized that what he loved about performing was bringing other joy, but “the pity is then I come home and I don’t have that joy. I have joy because I love my daughter and I love my family. I love being a dad more than chocolate ice cream. But that can’t be my only joy. I have to love myself. And that’s when I realized that I had a problem, because if I can spend everything on stage and on camera, but then I come home and there is a love deficit, what is going on? That was my rock bottom.”
He said he was treated for love addiction.
“What am I looking for in these people that I can’t find in myself?” he remembered asking himself. “And then leaving a wake of people and never being satisfied and then going back to being lonely. Fast forward to recently asking myself the question: ‘Wayne, um, are you gay?’ And the answer was no because despite having been in all of these unsuccessful relationships and now dealing with what I know can be diagnosed as love addiction, I started to go, ‘Okay, I’m feeling something, but I just don’t know how to get there.’ And then I felt like a fraud.”
He said that while he’s been attracted to men before, he’s never dated one, and tried in earlier years to shove the feeling aside. “I was already bullied about a bunch of other shit,” he said. “I didn’t wanna add a top hat on top of that suit.”
However, Brady said, looking his truth in the face and accepting it has allowed him to feel more authentic, more himself.
Brady shares a 20-year-old daughter, Maile, with his ex-wife, Mandie Taketa, and said both have been supportive. He is also considered a co-parent to Taketa’s new baby with partner Jason Fordham, and the family is currently filming a reality series about their home life for Hulu.
“I’ve got some work to do still,” he said.
“If I’m healthy, then I can go onstage at Let’s Make A Deal and be the best Wayne Brady that everybody wants and expects. I can be the best dad that Maile needs. I can be the best friend to Mandie, the best son to my mother, and one day, the best partner to someone, because I’m doing this for me.”
