When NBA star Jason Collins revealed to the world that he's gay, no one was more shock than his ex-fiancée, whom he dated for seven years. Carolyn Moos has revealed that the Washington Wizards centre only admitted to her his true sexual orientation just days before he came out.

Carolyn told TMZ that she was engaged to the player until they broke up in 2009 when he called it quits. She said that she never once suspected that her boyfriend of seven years was gay, and she was even dumbfounded when he decided to pull the plug on their wedding.

Jason apparently never gave her a satisfactory answer why he wanted to break up with her all those years. He only informed her of the true reason last weekend, before his confession on the magazine was published.

"It's very emotional for me as a woman to have invested 8 years in my dream to have a husband, soul mate, and best friend in him. So this is all hard to understand," she said.

"I care about [Jason] tremendously and only want the best for him. I want Jason to be happy for a lifetime and stay true to who he really is, inside and out."

On Monday, the issue of Sports Illustrated magazine was published online, in which the 34-year-old athlete came out as gay. He became the first active male athlete in a major American team sport to do so.

His announcement was generally met with praise and support from his fellow NBA players, President Barack Obama, former president Bill Clinton, talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, the LGBT community, and even his corporate sponsor Nike.

It's truly quite a courageous feat for a person to reveal to everyone his true sexual orientation. This is particularly true as well for celebrities who are constantly judged by the public. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why there are gay and lesbian celebrities who had gone out with the opposite sex in the past.

A few of the gay celebrities who, like Jason, had once date a member of the opposite sex appear in the slideshow.

Barack Obama