14 DAY TRIAL // The latest issue of People magazine brings a “coming out” type of story with country singer Chely Wright, who says she’s finally decided to stop lying to her fans and the people around her. She is the first country singer to ever come out and the decision she had to make was a tough one, because she basically laid her career on the line with it. At the same time, Chely also had to face her own demons, she tells People, as a Wenn report can confirm.
As we also noted the other day, by coming out, Wright is risking her entire career as chances are that the traditionally-conservative country music public reject her because of it. On a personal level, the singer was also dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, as a comment from fellow country singer John Rich literally pushed her to the verge of desperation. She even contemplated suicide at one point, Chely tells People.
As per the singer’s own account, while talking to Rich, he made a comment that later triggered a meltdown, and he wasn’t even aware of it at the time. “He said, ‘You're not gay are you?!’ I said, ‘No, John, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Good, thank God.’ And that began a spiral for me. I had a meltdown shortly after that,” Chely reveals. Things deteriorated in almost no time, and she soon turned from depressed to suicidal, and was even one step to taking her own life, she reveals.
“I was looking at myself in a mirror… as I was about to do it. I just looked at myself and something snapped and I started to cry… and I realized I have too much to live for,” Chely recalls of how she almost killed herself because she could no longer stand the pressure of the decision she had to make. In the end, though, she chose to do what was right by her. “I may lose my career in country music, that will break my heart, but it’s okay. I have a lot of different pieces of my heart that matter and that’s what I’ve come to learn,” she adds.
Word of a country singer coming out in People had been around for weeks before the actual issue arrived on newsstands. However, confirmation that it was Chely Wright still came as a shock, especially since she was never plagued by doubts as regards her personal preferences. For the full interview with her, pick up the latest issue of People magazine, out now.