Neil Patrick Harris reflected on his decision to come out as gay in 2006, saying he opened up about his private life after becoming a “target” of gossip bloggers, including Perez Hilton.
“I had started dating David, who’s now my husband, David Burtka, well before I auditioned for ‘How I Met Your Mother,’” Harris shared on Tuesday’s episode of the “Great Company with Jamie Laing” podcast. “Everyone on that show knew David, knew that we were a couple. But that was at a time when there were bloggers on the internet and that you would go to like read the salacious, you know, ‘Try to guess who this actor is that’s gay and in the closet,’ kind of comment.”
He added: “And so, there was a fear that I would be like, the next target on that. And David and I would go to movie premieres together, but I would walk the carpet and he would go around the other side of the photographers.”
Harris acknowledged that they could have justified keeping their personal life private at the time, given both he and Burtka risked potential professional ramifications by confirming their couple status.
“But, intrinsically, makes David potentially feel less than,” he said. “If I’m getting to walk across while he’s like skulking behind, right? And then, sure enough, the the target came towards me in a very weird way.
“A comment had come out that I had said that I wasn’t of that persuasion, which was the quoted phrase,” he continued. “Like someone asked a publicist about my sexuality and the publicist said I was ‘Not of that persuasion.’ That turned into, ‘That’s weird for him to say because we know that he’s gay.’”
Harris shared that he realized at that moment that he was “going to have to say something.”
“I got to get ahead of the story,” the actor recalled. “Because I don’t want to be coming out in reaction to ‘If anyone has any information on Neil Patrick Harris, have you ever slept with him, please come forward.’”
While Harris didn’t name Hilton directly, the celebrity blogger did infamously launch an online campaign to “out” the “Doogie Howser, M.D.” star in the early 2000s, as he solicited his readers to come forward with any tips about the actor’s personal life. When Harris did come out, Hilton responded, “We are so proud (despite the naysayers) in having a hand in bringing about change.”
However, during a July appearance on the “Hang Out With Sean Hannity” podcast, Hilton expressed that he deeply regretted the way he targeted celebrities on his blog. He shared that he even reached out to Harris, as well as Britney Spears and Khloé Kardashian, to make amends.
“I realized what I was doing was wrong,” Hilton, who was hospitalized last week following a self-harm incident on TikTok, said. “I realized I could still be funny, but I didn’t have to be so cheap, and I didn’t have to be so cruel. It was cruel. It’s something that I carry with me. It’s like my scarlet letter, and it’s very heavy baggage.”
Hilton compared his campaign to out celebrities to a “witch hunt,” adding, “I was trying to track down people he dated. I viewed it as entertainment, but it’s their lives.”
Per Hilton, Harris accepted his apology, sharing that he was asked to write something for the actor’s memoir.
“So I wrote a little something in there, and he was very, very gracious,” Hilton said.
As for Harris, he admitted he was “a little scared” about what the reaction would be to his statement. Yet, he said there was “indifference at best.”
“I was a little bit offended that more people weren’t surprised,” he said on Tuesday. “I expected a little more. ‘Wait, what?’”
Watch his full interview on the “Great Company” podcast above.
