Beth Ditto had a boyfriend in high school despite knowing she was a lesbian.
The Gossip singer decided she would embark on a heterosexual relationship but she couldn’t suppress her gay feelings and kept breaking up with him because she knew she was living a lie.
Speaking on the ‘Homo Sapiens’ podcast, she said: “I had a high school boyfriend at the time but I cannot tell you how many times I broke up with him because I was gay.”
The 40-year-old music star explained that her boyfriend repeatedly refused to accept the break up.
She added: “I told him! I was like ‘I can’t do this’, but he was like ‘It’s okay, I can always take you back’.”
The pair were together during the latter years of high school, from the ages of 16 to 18, before Beth fled the small Bible belt town of Judsonia, Arkansas.
The punk rock singer moved to Washington, DC in 1999 to start Gossip with friends before releasing their debut studio album in 2001.
But Ditto also claimed that despite making it big in the music industry, she was never affected by the perils of fame and was often confused about the hostile attitude of the big city.
She told the podcast: “I was just the short fat kid who was nice to everybody.”
Beth found it difficult to understand why city folk were not as warm and welcoming as those from the South were.
The singer - who eventually disbanded Gossip to pursue a career in the fashion industry - added: “I did not get what people’s problem was when I moved to the North. I was like ‘Okay, there’s a stick up your a** I guess!’”