Wentworth Miller Admits To Trying To Commit Suicide Before Coming Out As Gay [VIDEO]
Wentworth Miller has been acting in front of the camera for more than a decade, often playing tough characters. But it wasn’t until August 2013 that the “Prison Break” star decided to come out as gay. And just recently, he has also revealed that he had tried to take his own life more than once when he was younger.
Miller was speaking at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner in Seattle when he opened up to the audience about how he struggled to come to terms with his sexuality.
“The first time I tried to kill myself was when I was 15,” the 41-year-old actor revealed.
“I waited until my family went away for the weekend. I was alone and I swallowed a bottle of pills. I don’t remember what happened over the next couple of days, but I’m pretty sure come Monday, I was on the bus back to school pretending everything was fine.”
The worst part is that his attempt to take his own life wasn’t a cry for help. He knew he was alone, and
“I’ve told no one. You only cry for help if you believe there is help to calm you. And I didn’t need it. I wanted out.”
He also admitted how he resisted telling the public that he was gay at the start of his career.
“I had multiple opportunities to speak the truth, which is that I was gay, but I chose not to. I was out privately to family and friends. Publicly, I was not.
“I chose to lie when I thought about the possibility of coming out, ow that might impact me and the career I worked so hard for, I was filled with fear.”
In August, Miller surprised the industry when he came out in an open letter refusing an invitation to attend a film festival in Russia.
“As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes,” his letter to Maria Averbakh, the festival director of St Petersburg International Film Festival, partly reads.
“However, as a gay man, I must decline.
“I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.”
Miller was referring to Russia’s newly passed law that prohibits the members of the public to propagate homosexuality to children. Wearing pro-gay statement shirts or even holding hands with the same sex may be considered propagating homosexuality, and puts people at risk of being fined, arrested, or deported.
Watch the TMZ video here: