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I'm A Celebrity 2017 Australia: Carson Kressley says he kept bullying secret

Carson Kressley only admitted to his parents he was gay when Queer Eye For The Straight Guy was due to come out on television, he told his I'm A Celebrity campmates.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, with his father running a local car dealership since 1945 and a mother who was a housewife mostly, Kressley told of his harrowing teenager years being bullied in high school and living in fear about having "this terrible thing" that would mean his family wouldn't love him.

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Carson Kressley opens up on bullying

American fashion guru Carson Kressley discusses being bullied as a child and the great relationship he has with his parents on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!.

"I remember like every day of eighth grade going to school and the person that was assigned to sit next to me ... would punch me and call me names. I would literally go to the bathrooms and dry heave. And you just get used to it," he said.

"The bullying wound up being an actual gift because junior high is terrible for everyone. I think the thing that's especially difficult for gay kids is that if you get bullied at school for a being the only Asian kid and the rest of your class is all white, or whatever, you can go home to your parents and say, 'It was a tough day. Everyone picked on me because my skin is darker. Or we're new in town'.

"When you're gay and you go home afraid to tell anybody because you don't want to, you think no-one will love you.

"And you hear family members talking badly about gay people – in society it's not really accepted. You think you have a terrible thing and you can't share this terrible thing with anybody. So that makes it really hard and you're really alone."

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Kressley graduated from Northwestern Lehigh High School in 1987, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in fine art and a degree in finance from Gettysburg College.

"I think it's the usual bullying. And I think when you're like in elementary school it's not so bad. I still had Calvin Klein jeans. They were busy playing with matchbox cars." 

In revealing to Steve Price that he waited until 2003 to tell his parents that he was homosexual, when he did it was to little fanfare.

"I actually didn't tell them until Queer Eye For The Straight Guy was coming out. I knew it was coming out on TV Guide on a Tuesday for the premiere of the show. I told them I was doing a new show and they were like, 'What's it called?' I said it doesn't have a name yet. And literally the weekend before the TV Guide was coming out with us on the cover with the show's name, I had to tell them.

"I waited 'till there was a terrible rain storm and my mum was driving her minivan and I said 'that show I'm doing is called Queer Eye For The Straight Guy. She was saying, 'Let me guess, you're not the straight guy?' I'm like, 'I'm not.' She's like, 'We kind of knew'. 

"It was not a big news flash at my house."

"One of the things that was so gratifying about that show is that it helped so many young people come out and it still gives me goose bumps," he continued.

"I still get kids that are like maybe 22, 25 and they'll say, 'You're my hero. My family watched the show together. I was gay and they had fun with you and they said Carson is great and they gave me the confidence to be the loud, feminine, flamey and shrieky kid and it would be OK because you were OK.'

"It helped so many young people come out."

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