Ricky Martin, 49, shares he was 'in love' with the women he dated before coming out as gay

Ricky Martin insists he ‘wasn’t misleading anyone’ when he dated women.

The 49-year-old pop star romanced ‘lots of women’ before he came out as gay in 2010, but he has rubbished the suggestion he was being dishonest with his girlfriends.

‘Sexuality is one complicated thing. It’s not black and white. It’s filled with colors. When I was dating women, I was in love with women. It felt right, it felt beautiful,’ the crooner told People magazine this week.

‘You can’t fake chemistry – the chemistry was there with them. I wasn’t misleading anyone,’ he added.

Before he wed artist Jwan Yosef in 2017, Martin was in relationships with Carlos Gonzalez (2008 – 2014), Nathan Lane (2008), Ines Misan (2000 – 2002), Maital Saban (2000), Adriana Biega (1998 – 1999), Lilly Melgar (1994), Rebecca de Alba (1994 – 2005) and Gabriela Sabatini (1992).

Ricky was asked about his sexuality during an interview with Barbara Walters in 2000, 10 years before he came out as gay.

At the time, he rejected the chance to come out – but he now admits it would’ve been ‘great’ if he did feel brave enough at the time to do so.

Ricky told People magazine: ‘A lot of people say, what would you do differently? Well, maybe I would have come out in that interview.

‘It would’ve been great because when I came out, it just felt amazing,’ he added.

‘When it comes to my sexuality, when it comes to who I am, I want to talk about what I’m made of, about everything that I am. Because if you hide it, it’s a life-or-death situation.’

Ricky also acknowledges that it remains difficult for young people to come out – especially if they’re lacking relevant role models in the LBGTQ community.

The Livin’ la Vida Loca hitmaker – who was the first mainstream Latin music star to come out – explained: ‘There are many, many kids out there that don’t have someone to look up to. All they have around them is people telling them, ‘What you’re feeling is evil.’

‘But, you can’t force someone to come out. But if you have an egg and you open it from the outside, only death comes out. But if the egg opens up from the inside, life comes out.’

This comes after Martin said he has made sure to check up on his children’s mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The singer has twins Matteo and Valentino, 12, Lucia, two, and Renn, 17 months, with Yosef, and has said that although he was feeling ‘anxiety’ during the height of the pandemic last year, he made sure to talk to his brood to ensure they were not feeling the same way.

He said: ‘My family was doing great and I was checking up on my kids all the time, just to make sure that they’re not feeling the anxiety that I was feeling, to be honest. But they were in a really good place.’

Ricky and his family have been quarantining with his mother throughout the pandemic, and the hitmaker said his children were ‘crazy happy’ to have their grandmother with them.

He explained: ‘They were crazy happy to be with their grandparents because luckily my mom was with us the first four months of the pandemic. She came to visit us in LA and I was like, ‘Mom, you’re not going on another plane to go back home. Sorry. You’re staying with us’.

‘It was great that she was with us. While everybody was going crazy, I decided to finish my album and it helped a lot that she was there.’

And although the pandemic has been difficult for people across the world, Ricky – who has been staying in his Puerto Rico home with his family for the past few months – has admitted he ‘can’t complain’ about his own experience.

He told People magazine: ‘I can’t complain. This is beautiful. I’m with my family. I’ve been here for quite some time now and after quarantining and doing all the tests for everybody, especially my parents. It’s so surreal, but I’m very happy to be here.’