Chris Appleton Reflects on Coming Out as Gay to Former Partner & Kids

Chris Appleton is reflecting on his coming out journey.

In a new interview, the 44-year-old celebrity hairstylist detailed coming out as gay at the age of 26 to his former partner Kate Katon and their two kids, son Billy, now 22, and daughter Kitty-blu, now 20.

Keep reading to find out more…“I was like, ‘I’m going to hurt all these people I’ve created this life with,’” Chris shared on the Jay Shetty Podcast.

“We were together for nine years, had two kids and it was a magical nine years,” he added of his life with Kate. “I honestly thought I had it all figured out.”

Chris said that he and Kate had a stereotypical domestic life before he realized that he was gay, and that’s when “it all came crashing down.”

“I really loved her,” he explained. “I didn’t want to be gay. I didn’t want to be different.”

For Chris, he said that realizing his true sexuality felt like “breathing,” though it was immediately followed by a deep sense of shame, adding, “That was a process.”

After coming out to his former partner, Chris said it helped with his confidence, but admitted telling his kids was the hardest part.

“My job as a dad was to protect my kids,” he explained. “I just didn’t want them to ever had that shame put onto them. In a way it felt like a disease, it felt like cancer and I wanted to cut it out. Like, ‘if I could just get rid of that then I could be a good dad.’”

Chris then went on to feeling “selfish” in the moment after he came out to his kids.

“They were upset ’cause they knew I was upset,” Chris recalled. “They were confused and all of a sudden I just felt like I just messed their life up. I felt like I’d failed as a dad because my job was to protect them. And if anyone ever hurt them, I would protect them. But I was the one hurting them.”

Chris said that he left his family’s house immediately because he began experiencing suicidal ideation.

“I felt like it would be better for them to have a dad that was dead than a dad that was gay,” he shared. “And so I brought some painkillers, I brought a bottle of alcohol and I checked myself into a hotel. I took the tablets and drank the alcohol. I rang Kate and I apologized for the pain that I’d caused.”

After surviving the attempt to end his life, Chris said that he felt something within him change for the better.

“I just remember thinking, ‘What about if I just surrender?’” Chris remembered. “‘What about if I’m just gay and I just be that?’ I don’t really know where to begin with it, and I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but it has to be better than what I’ve been doing.”

Nearly 20 years later, Chris likes where he is today, saying, “I think I’m in a good place.”

Also during the interview, Chris shared his first comments about his divorce from Lukas Gage.