Lauren Jauregui Says Perez Hilton Outed Her When She Was a Teen
Lauren Jauregui reflected on how she "was outed" as a member of the LGBTQ+ community before she was ready.
During a recent episode of Red Table Talk: The Estefans, the "Colors" singer spoke candidly about how she dealt with essentially being forced to come out after photos of her kissing another girl in a photo booth went viral on social media. She revealed that she was dating a girl for about a year and had fallen in love with her at the age of 15.
“I was at my uncle’s wedding in New Orleans and my aunt very innocently posted the photos from the photo booth onto her Facebook page," Jauregui explained of the photos' origin. “It was a link for the family to be able to click on and my fans are just a little wild and they found the picture where my girlfriend and I — we were drunk — [were] kissing."
The photos were shared on fansites but they didn't go nearly as viral until celebrity gossip columnist Perez Hilton shared them on his Twitter account. Jauregui felt that she was outed by his tweet and that her own coming-out "process was violated."
“He definitely outed me," she continued. "I wasn’t ready because I’m also Latina. There was that whole looming thing of, ‘What is my community going to feel about me? Are they even going to accept me?’ I know that my family obviously accepted me. But was that something that I was willing to deal with on a public scale?”
After the interview aired, Hilton addressed Jauregui's comments via Twitter. He said he stands by his decision to share the photos to this day.
"When I apologize for something ... it’’s because I meant it and am genuinely remorseful. I am NOT sorry for that tweet about @LaurenJauregui. That was not 'outing' her," he claims.
"All I did was send out a tweet talking about the leaked photo and I said 'Why are #FifthHarmony fans being so extra over this photo of @LaurenJauregui (in the red) kissing another girl? NBD!'" he added. "I don't regret that. I never claimed or presumed anything about her sexuality."
Jauregui subsequently responded to the attention her recent interview has received in a Twitter thread, which can be read here.