{"id":962210,"date":"2026-05-15T19:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/962210\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:42:17","slug":"tommy-fleming-comes-out-as-gay-in-interview-discussing-marriage-breakdown-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/962210\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Fleming comes out as gay in interview discussing marriage breakdown \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer Tommy Fleming<\/a> has announced he is gay in an interview in which he discussed the breakdown of his nearly 20-year marriage.<\/p>\n

The veteran musician (55) from Co Sligo<\/a> said he regretted hurting those he loved, and that he is finally \u201cliving my truth\u201d after growing up in a context where people around him were hostile to gay people.<\/p>\n

He also discussed being hospitalised after attempting to take his own life last year. <\/p>\n

Speaking to Ciara Kelly<\/a> on Newstalk<\/a>\u2019s Drivetime, he said: \u201cWe were very happy, but small cracks started to appear \u2013 mainly for me \u2013 and the small cracks were never mended. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose cracks became a chasm.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he had been \u201cliving a lie my whole life\u201d but was now ready to change that. <\/p>\n

At the weekend, Fleming\u2019s former wife Tina Mitchell, who he met in 2002 and married in 2006, confirmed their marriage had ended and said they were separated since last October.<\/p>\n

She also said she is no longer his manager \u201cin any capacity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fleming said: \u201cThe hardest part of that was the energy and the effort it took for this lie to be constantly covered and to be, I suppose, protected,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that lie was that I\u2019m gay. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m finally living my truth, I\u2019m finally being honest, being able to live a life that\u2019s true.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said Ireland \u201cwas a very different country\u201d when he was a young man.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember, it was in about 1984, \u201985; it was at the height of the Aids epidemic and crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery evening on the news, there was something about San Francisco, it was always these just awful stories. My uncle was in the house in my home place with some other neighbour and they were watching the TV, with this guy that had a week to live. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was telling his story, to which one of them turned around and said, \u2018They should be burned alive.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

He said his wife was aware of his \u201cbisexual phase\u201d when they first met.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the very first thing I said to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he \u201cyearned for the real me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew every day … I was not the real me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he felt \u201ctrapped\u201d within his own body.<\/p>\n

To deal with the guilt he was feeling, Fleming used alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI medicated with them. They were, they were a painkiller … to help me sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

He revealed that last September, he attempted suicide by overdose and was later admitted to St Patrick\u2019s Hospital in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cI initially felt like an absolute failure. I felt like I had absolutely failed in every, in every walk of life, in everything I\u2019d done. And I wasn\u2019t a real man.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said a phone call he made from the hospital was recorded and leaked without his knowledge and garda\u00ed are investigating. He said his \u201chand was forced\u201d to come out, partly due to a leaked recording which he also said took away his autonomy, his chance to tell his five siblings and took away the privacy of his suicide attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I can say is, I\u2019m absolutely remorseful and regretful for any of the hurt I\u2019ve caused to the people I love,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomeday I hope, if there is a God, I would hope and pray that there would be acceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the last two weeks were to have happened six or seven months ago … I don\u2019t think I would have survived it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said his mental health, his family, his closest friends and his music are most important to him now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer Tommy Fleming has announced he is gay in an interview in which he discussed the breakdown of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":962211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[268775,77,268774,8286,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-962210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ciara-kelly","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-newstalk-radio","11":"tag-sligo","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116580302870327947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}