Singer Clay Aiken questions Shawn Mendes’ sexuality mid-interview: ‘I shouldn’t out him’

An American Idol star has oddly derailed his interview, randomly questioning the sexuality of popular pop star Shawn Mendes.

Singer Clay Aiken randomly brought up Shawn Mendes’ sexuality while promoting his new Christmas album.

The American Idol star, 45, sat down with Variety to discuss Christmas Bells Are Ringing when suddenly he asked the interviewer, “By the way, did Shawn Mendes come out today?”

“Have you seen this video on his Instagram? I didn’t finish watching it because I looked at the time and I was like, ‘Oh God, I gotta get on the computer.’ So I don’t know if he really did.”

Singer Clay Aiken has randomly questioned the sexuality of fellow singer Shawn Mendes in a new interview. Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Shawn Mendes said at a recent concert that he was “figuring out” his sexuality. Picture: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

It’s unclear which Instagram video Aiken was referring to, however, clips of Mendes sharing at one of his concerts in Colorado that he was “figuring out” his sexuality went viral in late October.

“I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes,” the There’s Nothing Holding Me Back singer, 26, explained to his audience at the time.

“It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover it.”

Mendes — who has publicly dated only women, including singer Camila Cabello, until now — concluded, “The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. And I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times.”

Mendes says sexuality is “something very personal to me”. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

The singer has dated the likes of singer Camila Cabello (pictured), actress Chloë Grace Moretz and model Hailey Baldwin. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Aiken, who came out as gay in 2008, recognised in his Variety interview, “I shouldn’t out him if he didn’t.”

However, the Invisible singer added that he doesn’t believe that the media speculates about celebs’ sexuality in the same way they did when he was still in the closet in the early noughties.

“I feel like no one has speculated about sh*t since 2000 — since I went through that crap,” he said.

“I joke that after I came out publicly, it stopped being a story. I don’t know that anybody has had press in that way, like tabloid stories or questions by Diane Sawyer.”

Aiken surmised that perhaps the public “got bored” with that topic after he was at the centre of it.

Aiken rose to fame after placing runner-up in American Idol in 2003, with Ruben Studdard crowned the winner. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images

The political activist also noted that the former military policy Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — in which members of the LGBTQIA+ community were allowed to serve as long as they did not disclose their sexuality — ended in 2011 so America “came to terms” with “gays a little better” since then.

“We have insisted our media become more empathetic,” he added. “Press can’t invade in the way they used to be able to invade. And that’s great.”

Aiken then told Variety he “didn’t mean to derail” the interview, stating the clip of Mendes had “just came up on [his] screen right before [he] turned on the computer” for the sit-down.

Page Six has reached out to Mendes’ reps for comment but did not immediately hear back.

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Singer Clay Aiken questions Shawn Mendes’ sexuality mid-interview: ‘I shouldn’t out him’