Darren Hayes reveals tragic reason he did Masked Singer

The fiercely private pop icon suffered a very tough year, and it hit him hard.

The Masked Singer star Darren Hayes has opened up about the heartbreaking reason he finally agreed to do the show.

Hayes revealed that he’d been asked countless times to take part in the competition, both in the UK and in Australia, but had always turned producers down.

However, this year he felt differently and decided to sign up.

The Masked Singer star Darren Hayes has shared the reason he took part in the show. Picture Channel 10.

Hayes had a tough year, and decided that signing up to the show would be the perfect “distraction” from grieving the end of his marriage and the financial pressures that came with that.

“When the Masked Singer came up – and I’d said no so many times and to the UK version too – it was such a lovely distraction and something really humbling about doing it,” he told The Courier Mail.

Hayes released his comeback album, Homosexual, earlier this year after facing a tough divorce from his partner of 17 years, Richard Cullen.

They separated in May, before Hayes eventually filed for divorce in September.

Earlier this year, the 51-year-old Truly Madly Deeply singer-songwriter announced his split from Cullen in a since-deleted Instagram post. “After 17 years of marriage to the best person I have ever met, Richard and I have chosen to accept that our union has gently and beautifully come to rest.”

Following The Masked Singer finale, Hayes shared that the split had been tough for him because he considers himself a very “private” person, and shared that his new record came about as a form of therapy for him.

Conrad Sewell and Dami Im were in this year’s Masked Singer finale with Hayes. Picture from Steve Pohlner.

“I think if you look at my album and what I was singing about, I was making the decision to sort of move on by coming back to music,” he said. “Like anything, it’s liberating at first because I think there was a part of me that was asleep for a long time and a part of me that was grieving for a long time but releasing a statement about a marriage ending is hard for someone like me who’s a private person.

Meanwhile, the star went on to add that he felt “so evil” keeping The Masked Singer secret from his mother. But with contestants’ pay cheques reportedly worth up to $200,000 plus fees for each episode, he couldn’t take a chance on potential leaks.

“You sign an NDA [Non-Disclosure Agreement] and it’s not an insignificant amount of money that you get paid. So I didn’t want to lose the money,” he said, before adding: “And I love my mum and she’s trustworthy, but she’s also proud and what if she told someone?”