Barry Manilow, who’s had a male partner 39 years, finally tells world he’s gay
(well, marrying him WAS a big clue...)
HIS love songs have provided the soundtrack to millions of relationships – but Barry Manilow has always been reluctant to talk about his own love life.
Yesterday, however, the 73-yearold came out as gay, admitting he kept his male partner secret for 39 years to avoid ‘disappointing’ his millions of devoted fans.
It turns out that he need not have worried, because many said they had suspected the truth for years.
The singer, known for hits in the Seventies and Eighties including Mandy and Copacabana, has been in a relationship with his manager Garry Kief since they met in 1978.
In an interview to coincide with the release of his 29th album, Manilow said: ‘I thought I would be disappointing them [female fans] if they knew I was gay.’ But the singer said he had been overwhelmed by the positive reaction, adding: ‘When they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy.
‘The reaction was so beautiful, strangers commenting, “Great for you!”. I’m just so grateful for it.’
Manilow, who is releasing the album This Is My Town: Songs Of New York, secretly married Kief on their 53-acre estate in Palm Springs, California, in 2014. His friend Suzanne Somers revealed the marriage on a talk show a year later but he never confirmed or commented on it.
Speaking of when he met television executive Kief, he said: ‘I knew this was it. I was one of the lucky ones. I was pretty lonely before that.
‘When you’re that big you don’t meet many people. But Garry didn’t know what I did, even though I had all these records out. He was a guy, I was a guy, so we could deal with each other like two normal people, not like a superstar and a person.’
Kief quickly became his manager, but walking down the aisle together took more than three decades.
‘We’ve been married all these years. It’s just that it became legal,’ Manilow told People magazine.
The pair went to great lengths to keep their relationship private because Manilow was wary about revealing his sexuality and Kief struggled to deal with the singer’s fame.
Manilow, who was briefly married to school girlfriend Susan Deixler, said: ‘He was like, “I can’t handle this, it’s not for me”. I’m glad he stayed.’
‘I was pretty lonely before’