Clay Aiken is joining the conversation about Shawn Mendes’ sexuality.
In an interview with Variety published Wednesday, the “American Idol” alum, 45, paused talking about his Christmas album to randomly bring up the discourse around Mendes, 26.
“By the way, did Shawn Mendes come out today?” Aiken asked. “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,” Aiken added. “I shouldn’t out him if he didn’t.”
Aiken’s interview seemingly took place at the end of October when Mendes made headlines for saying he was still “figuring out” his sexuality at his concert in Colorado. Clips of the moment were shared on TikTok by fans.
“The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone,” Mendes said at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Oct. 28. “I don’t really know sometimes, and I know other times.”
After bringing up Mendes, Aiken — who came out as gay in 2008 — was asked by the Variety reporter how he feels about the speculation about the fellow singer’s sexuality.
“I feel like no one has speculated about s–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 went on, “Maybe people got bored after going through six years of it with me. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ended in 2011 so America came to terms with us gays a little better. We have insisted our media become more empathetic. Press can’t invade in the way they used to be able to invade. And that’s great.”
“But I didn’t mean to derail this,” he told the interviewer. “It just came up on my screen right before I turned on the computer.”
The Post has reached out to Mendes’ rep for comment
The conversation then shifted back to Aiken’s Christmas album.
When Aiken came out to “Good Morning America’s” Diane Sawyer in 2008, he admitted that the speculation about his sexuality was hurtful.
“I’ve gotten to a point now where I, A., am tired of trying, and B., I feel it’s kind of invasive, you know?” he said at the time. “What I do in my private life is nobody’s business anymore.”
“It’s one thing to try to be open and talk to people and try to share as much as I can and, and of course I want to,” Aiken continued. “But at some point it becomes just really rude, you know?”
Mendes, meanwhile, got candid about his sexuality at his Colorado concert last month.
“Since I was really young, there’s been this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long,” he told the crowd, noting that the rumors are “kind of silly, because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes.”
Mendes has dated Camila Cabello on and off since 2019. He was also previously linked to Hailey Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter.
In 2020, the musician spoke on the rumors about his sexuality during an appearance on the “Armchair Expert” podcast.
“It was so, so frustrating for me because there were some people in my life that I was very, very close to, who were gay and in the closet,” Mendes said.
“And I felt like this real anger for those people. It’s such a tricky thing. You want to say, ‘I’m not gay, but it’d be fine if I was gay — but also there’s nothing wrong with being gay, but I’m not.’ You don’t really know how to respond to the situation,” he added.
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