Wayne Brady Comes Out as Pansexual: ‘I’ve Always Felt Like a Sham Because I Wasn’t Being Forthcoming With Myself’

TV comedian, actor and host Wayne Brady has come out as pansexual in an article published by People on Monday.

In the article, Brady, best known for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Let’s Make a Deal, reveals that he is pansexual, meaning that he is attracted to people regardless of their sex or gender — or, as Brady himself puts it, “bisexual — with an open mind!” Brady recently came out to his ex-wife Mandie Taketa and their 20-year-old daughter Maile; Brady and his family are currently filming a reality series that’s set to debut on Hulu next year.

In his own words, Brady explains that to him, pansexuality means “being able to be attracted to anyone who identifies as gay, straight, bi, transsexual or non-binary. Being able to be attracted across the board. And, I think, at least for me for right now, that is the proper place.” He recalls that Robin Williams’ death in 2014 was a wake-up call for him to get real about his mental health: “I had to start learning about myself, and I had to start owning up to things that maybe I’d either repressed, suppressed, or just didn’t wanna deal with.”

Brady went through therapy and treatment for love addiction, he says, asking himself: “What am I looking for in these people that I can’t find in myself?… Fast-forward to recently asking myself the question: ‘Wayne, um, are you gay?'” He admits that he has “been attracted to certain men in my life, but I’ve always pushed that aside because of how I was raised, and because I live in today’s world, and it’s scary as s–t.” (He’s never dated a man, though, he notes.)

He also confesses to feeling shame while worrying about “people finding out.” He’s always had a strong community of LGBTQ+ friends, he says, “but I’ve always felt like a sham because I wasn’t being forthcoming with myself.” He’s always thought that the public didn’t need to know the truth about his sexuality, “but that gave me license to still live in the shadows and to be secretive… I had to break that behavior.”

For now, Brady is single and not dating anyone, he emphasizes: “It’s not about being with someone right now. I’ve got some work to do still. Then, Wayne as a single, open-minded pansexual can make a decision and be free and open to other people.”

Brady first broke out by appearing on the British version of the improvised comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, then becoming a regular cast member on the American version, which debuted on ABC in 1998 and was later revived by The CW. Brady then hosted a self-titled talk show that ran for two seasons in syndication and guest-starred as Barney’s gay brother James on How I Met Your Mother. In 2009, he began hosting the CBS daytime game show Let’s Make a Deal, which he still currently hosts. He also recently competed on The Masked Singer and Dancing With the Stars. He’s won five Emmys, with a total of 20 nominations to his credit.