Irish singer Tommy Fleming said he has been “living a lie” as he came out as gay.
Fleming said he was “remorseful and regretful” for any hurt caused to his family but it was time to “set the record straight”.
The Sligo-born singer rose to fame in the early 1990s after he was asked to tour the US with Phil Coulter.
His interview came after a heated voice note recording involving Fleming emerged on social media earlier this week.
The singer and his long-time wife Tina separated in October 2025.
They were married for 20 years and Fleming said they were happy but “small cracks” started to appear and eventually “those cracks became a chasm”.
He told Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder: “I wasn’t happy, and it wasn’t about being happy, it was about being uncomfortable with the situation, if that makes sense.
“I’d been living a lie for all my life really, and the hardest part of that was the energy and the effort it took for this lie to be constantly covered, and to be, I suppose, protected, and that lie was that I’m gay.”
He added: “I’m gay, and I’m finally living my truth, I’m finally being honest, being able to live a life that’s true and real and just honest.”
Fleming said the fact his wife was also his manager “made life more difficult”.
“You lived together, you worked together, you socialised together, we were always in each other’s pocket, and just like thousands of marriages every day, we just started to drift apart,” he said.
Asked if he felt trapped he said: “100%, but trapped within my own creation, within my own body of lies, within my own bubble that I’ve created, and that was what was a huge part of it.”
Fleming also revealed that he had attempted suicide by overdose because of “an overwhelming sense of absolute sadness and hopelessness, and the fact that it would be so much easier if I wasn’t here”.
He said he was “absolutely remorseful and regretful” for the public nature of the revelation and “for any of the hurt I’ve caused to the people I love” as a result.
“I can’t undo the wrongs I’ve done, he said.
“I can’t, and I can’t change the past, I can only look ahead, and in order for me to survive, in order for me to have a life, I had to tell the truth, and I don’t own this, really.”
Asked if he felt his hand was forced, he said: “It was not that I was going to be lying again about it.
“I’m not that type of person, I’m not going to be running down Grafton Street singing I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross.
“This was not how I wanted to do this.”
