Actor and comedian Wayne Brady came out as pansexual in August, and now he’s opening up about how discovering his sexuality has influenced his dating life.
“It would be hard for me to truly put myself 100% into a relationship when there’s this nagging doubt that I have not explored that piece of me, or even given voice to having that option, Brady told Entertainment Tonight. He continued, “It doesn’t mean that it’s ever going to manifest itself in a relationship with a man, or a relationship with this person. I don’t know, but at least being able to voice that, so that, if I go into a relationship, whomever I’m in a relationship with knows me 100%.”
The Whose Line Is It Anyway? alum said he now feels he can fully commit to a romantic partner.
“I think that’s the piece that was missing, that I couldn’t verbalize, ’cause I couldn’t lock on to it. I always felt this much dishonest, and if I was being dishonest, then there’s no way to truly give yourself 100%,” he told the outlet. “Now I feel differently about that ’cause I went, ‘Oh, well now you know. So if you were to be involved with me, you know Wayne in totality.’ I’m not hiding anything now, so now I can approach you in a way that I never have.”
Brady added his pansexuality gives him the freedom “to love whomever I want no matter the vessel.”
He also noted his sexuality doesn’t necessarily mean the road ahead is known.
“At the end of the day for me that just means that I am free to voice the option,” he explained. “Here’s the thing: it may never happen… I’m not saying that I am going to be in a relationship with another man. I’m saying it is very possible for me to be attracted to the man because of the person. I can be attracted to this beautiful woman because of the person. But then again, that may be a non-binary person that might go, ‘Oh, I’m attracted to you. I’m attracted to this trans person.'”
But when it comes to being in a relationship, Wayne said that will not happen anytime soon.
“The best thing that I could do for myself right now and to do for someone else is not be in a relationship, is to just breathe,” he said. “There are things that I want to do. … I just want to work right now. I want to continue to go to therapy, so that when I am ready to either pursue or be pursued, whomever that may be, my aim is to be my best self.”
Even though a new beau is off the table for now, Brady has felt rejuvenated since coming out and hopes others can find that kind of peace, too.
“Every single person should be able to be whatever your truth is. You should be able to feel like you walk in that daily, because that’s the only way to really be free. I think that for myself,” Entertainment Tonight reported he said. “… It was a big deal, but it’s not really a big, big deal, because it really is just a piece of this that I was all honest about… This is just an extension of that journey, trying to get to a place after turning 50 where… [I realized] how cool it is to just wake up and go, ‘It is what it is,’ and nobody can say anything.”