Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has come out publicly as bisexual.
"I don’t identify as gay, but I do identify as bisexual," Gillum told journalist Tamron Hall in a candid interview that aired on Monday (September 14). "That is something I’ve never shared publicly before.”
The admission comes six months after Gillum — the former Tallahassee mayor who narrowly lost the Florida governor's race to Republican Ron DeSantis in 2018 — checked into rehab for alcoholism and depression after police found him passed out in a Miami Beach hotel with another man who had reportedly overdosed.
"Everyone believes the absolute worst about that day. At this stage, I don't have anything else to have to conceal," Gillum said, admitting that he'd been drinking but didn't recall taking any drugs. "I literally got broken down to my most bare place, to the place where I wasn't even sure that I wanted to live. Not because of what I had done but because of everything that was being said about me."
He continued, "What was most hurtful was this belief that I was somehow living a lie in my marriage and in my family. That was the most hurtful to me. Because I believe we are all entitled to mistakes, and I believe we are entitled to those mistakes without having every other respectable and redeeming part of our lives invalidated."
Gillum's wife, R. Jai, who was also present for the interview, told Hall she knew of her husband's sexuality prior to their marriage, saying, “So many people just don’t understand bisexuality. Bisexuality is just something different. I just believe that love and sexuality exist on a spectrum. All I care about is what’s between us and what agreement we make.”
Photo: Getty Images