16 LGBTQ+ celebrities who came out later in life

Queer life doesn't have to begin when you're in your teens or twenties!

It's never too late to come out and live your truth, and these celebs prove that you can find happiness and love no matter what your timeline is.

While more and more people are coming out at younger ages (that's great too!), everyone's story is different, and some people don't come out, don't realize they are queer, or don't feel their first queer attraction until they are older. Other celebs have stated that they didn't want to come out for fear of alienating friends, family, or even fans.

Here are 16 celebrities who have come out at later times in their lives and proved that it's never too late when it comes to being your most authentic self!

1. Wayne Brady

Let's Make a Deal host Wayne Brady came out as pansexual in 2023 when he was 50. "I took pan to mean that not only can I be attracted to any of these people or types physically, but I could be attracted to the person that is there," he wrote at the time, adding that, "I've also been attracted to certain men in my life, but I've always pushed that aside because of how I was raised and because I live in today's world and it's scary as sh*t."

2. Cynthia Nixon

The Sex and the City star first said she was "a woman in love with another woman" in 2008 when she was dating her now-wife Christine Marinoni at the age of 42. In 2012, she started identifying as bisexual, saying, "While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual." In 2020, she stated that she now prefers the term "queer."

3. Niecy Nash

Niecy Nash has been a comedy superstar for years, and recently won her first primetime Emmy. At the age of 50, she married her wife Jessica Betts and announced to the world that she was gay.

4. Victor Garber

Titanic and Alias star Victor Garber confirmed he was gay in 2013 at the age of 64 when he was asked about a Wikipedia entry that said he had a male partner. "I don't really talk about it, but everyone knows," Garber said during award season for the film Argo. "He's going to be out here with me for the SAG Awards."

5. Queen Latifah

Rapper and actor Queen Latifah had always declined to talk about her relationships, but in 2021 at the age of 51, she thanked her partner Eboni Nichols, and their son Rebel at the BET Awards when she accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award. She ended her speech by wishing the crowd "Happy Pride!"

6. Joel Grey

In 2015, 82-year-old Broadway legend and Oscar-winner Joel Grey came out as gay. "I don't like labels. But if you have to put a label on it, I'm a gay man," he said. Grey had won a Tony, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar for playing the queer Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret.

7. Wanda Sykes

Comedian Wanda Sykes came out publicly in late 2008 while at a rally for same-sex marriage in Las Vegas, a month after she married her wife Alex Niedbalksi. She was 44 years old. "Oh, come on, it ain't like you never seen a Black lesbian before," she said at the rally. "When California passed Prop 8… I felt like I was being personally attacked, our community was attacked."

8. Alison Brie

Community star Alison Brie married her husband Dave Franco in 2017 and came out publicly as bisexual in 2023 at the age of 41. She and Franco were filming a video where they read thirst tweets when one of them said, "Listen, I am bisexualfor a reason, and that reason is strictly to be used in a threesome by Dave franco and Alison Brie." "That's also why I'm bisexual!" Brie laughed after reading the tweet.

9. Barry Manilow

The iconic singer married his longtime partner Garry Kief in 2014, but he didn't talk about it in public until 2017 when he was 73 years old. "I thought I would be disappointing them if they knew I was gay," the singer said of his fans. "So I never did anything."

"When they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy. The reaction was so beautiful – strangers commenting, 'Great for you!' I'm just so grateful for it," he added.

10. Kevin Spacey

Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey came out in 2017 when he was 58 years old and did it in a pretty terrible way. He came out as being gay after actor Anthony Rapp accused him of making a pass at him when he was 14 and Spacey was 26.

"This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life," he wrote. "I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women."

11. Jodie Foster

Oscar winning Silence of the Lambs star Jodie Foster used the Golden Globes stage to publicly come out in 2013 at the age of 51. While she was accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, she said, "I hope you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight. I already did my coming-out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age. Those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers, and then gradually and proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met," she said.

12. Chrishell Stause

Real estate agent, actor, and reality star Chrishell Stause began starring on Selling Sunset in 2019, and in 2021, she announced that she was in a relationship with her boss Jason Oppenheim. That relationship ended in December of that same year. In 2022, at the age of 40, she announced that she was in a new relationship with nonbinary Australian singer G Flip. The two got married in 2023.

13. Ian McKellen

Oscar nominated Lord of the Rings star Ian McKellan came out publicly in 1988 on a BBC Radio program in response to Section 28, a series of British laws that prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality." He was 49 at the time.

14. Elvira

Cassandra Peterson, known as the iconic horror host and actor Elvira, came out in 2021 in her memoir Yours Cruelly, Elvira. In the book, she revealed she was in a 19-year relationship with another woman, Teresa "T" Wierson.

15. Ricky Martin

The King of Latin Pop was 39 when he publicly came out in 2010 in a statement on his website. "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am," Martin wrote. "A few months ago I decided to write my memoirs, a project I knew was going to bring me closer to an amazing turning point in my life. From the moment I wrote the first phrase I was sure the book was the tool that was going to help me free myself from things I was carrying within me for a long time. Things that were too heavy for me to keep inside. Writing this account of my life, I got very close to my truth. And this is something worth celebrating."

16. Caitlyn Jenner

Former Olympian and reality star Caitlyn Jenner came out as trans publicly when she appeared on an interview with Diane Sawyer at age 65 and said, "I'm a woman." She made her public debut as Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair later that year where she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and revealed her new name.