Clay Aiken Reflects on Rosie O'Donnell Outing Him in 2006

Clay Aiken is looking back on a truly difficult chapter in his personal life after speaking recently on Page Six Radio. The forty-seven-year-old singer explained how Rosie O'Donnell revealed his sexuality during an episode of "The View" back in November 2006. That specific broadcast featured an on-air discussion between the guest and host Kelly Ripa that changed everything instantly.

I died inside a lot that week, Aiken recalled regarding those turbulent days. He described being woken by his son's mother who told him to get up immediately because Rosie just outed him on television. The singer admitted he felt completely freaked out upon realizing what had happened so suddenly in the public eye.

The confrontation between O'Donnell and Ripa followed a playful moment while Aiken co-hosted "Live with Regis and Kelly." He placed his hand over Ripa's mouth as a joke during her show, but she did not find that bit funny at all. After he removed his hand from her lips, Ripa told him she did not know where that hand had been.

When O'Donnell addressed the incident on "The View" just a few days later, she labeled the comment homophobic while defending Aiken against the criticism. She told Ripa that from her perspective as a gay person in the world, that remark came off exactly that way to her audience members listening at home.

I was in Los Angeles when that aired and I do not have any ill feelings against Rosie because she did mean well, Aiken said later about the situation. He believed her words were chosen in the heat of questioning why a girl like Ripa was on live TV with him right now during that specific segment.

Ripa defended herself from O'Donnell's accusations by explaining her comment was made because he was shaking hands with everybody in the audience during cold and flu season. She called it outrageous to imply she was being homophobic when she simply meant he touched everyone recently.

Aiken later referenced the awkward on-air moment while presenting at the VMA Awards with Tori Spelling a few weeks after the broadcast aired. He described her as very gracious for trying to diffuse the whole situation without adding more fuel to the fire between the hosts and their guests that day.

While O'Donnell mistakenly outed the Invisible singer while defending him during that interview, Aiken did not publicly confirm his sexuality until September 2008 at least officially. That year he posed for the cover of People with his newborn son under the headline Yes I am Gay to share his truth openly.

It was the first decision I made as a father regarding how we handled our private lives together, Aiken told the outlet back then about that pivotal moment. He stated he could not raise a child to lie or hide things because he was not raised that way himself and would never let his son do so either.

His son was born via invitro fertilization with his close friend and music producer Jaymes Foster who helped bring him into the world through medical assistance. Aiken made a name for himself when he competed on season two of American Idol in 2003 before becoming well known nationwide.

He finished in second place as the runner-up to Ruben Studdard during that memorable competition season where talent scouts searched far and wide. Nobody thought that anybody was going to win or achieve such massive success even though Kelly Clarkson had not had anything happen for her yet at that time. Her album had not even come out when they auditioned so none of them realized the stakes were there until it was too late.