Matt Terry was told he looked ‘too gay’ on The X Factor

X Factor winner Matt Terry has revealed the homophobia he faced while competing on the UK talent show in 2016.

The 32-year-old, who was crowned the winner of the ITV series’ thirteenth season, said he was told that he looked “too gay” while rehearsing for a a show.

Speaking on The Remember Me Show, Terry recalled the incident, which occurred in the lead-up to a live broadcast, saying he was pulled away from a sound check and told to change his hair.

“I had gotten really pally with the hair and make-up team, so I’m sat in the hair and make-up chair, and they’re like, ‘Shall we have some fund today?'” He told hosts Scott Bryan and Maisie Adam. “I had this big quiff at the time, and we put loads of blonde in my hair.”

After moving to the stage for a sound check, Terry recalled that, halfway through the rehearsal, he was stopped by senior producers in the studio and taken to a private room.

“There was this energy. The whole room, the whole studio shifts – something bad happened,” he continued. “Producer comes in [and says], ‘Right we’ve got to take him to hair now’, and I’m like, what’s happened?”

After being taken back to the hair and make-up department, Terry said he was left wondering what had happened, thinking he had done something wrong, which he said was an “awful feeling.”

“No one was telling me what was going on. So I’m sat in this chair like I’ve done something really bad and all of a sudden my excitement’s gone … I looked up at this guy, his name was Jamie, and I’m like what’s wrong? And he says ‘Just be quiet a minute, like just stay there in the chair.’

“I won’t say who – you can imagine who – said, ‘We have to change his hair back now because he looks too gay.'”

The singer, who didn’t come out as gay publicly until 2024, said the incident felt like a “double whammy,” that left him shocked and speechless.

He said that producers told him the blonde highlights in his hair made him look “too gay” and veered away from “whatever image they had going for me.”

“No one has ever sat me down and said to me, look, we know you’re gay but we’re not going to tell anyone because it might affect your audience. It might mean that, I don’t know, young girls don’t fancy you.

“I also haven’t told anyone [at the time], I’ve never come out to anybody, but in my heart I knew that about myself but I was just waiting for the right man to come along and make me feel like I was ready to just be like, hey, here’s the person I love.”

Terry said it was a “good example” of the underlying homophobia that was prevalent behind the scenes of reality TV in the UK and “how a TV show can work.”

Eight years after his X Factor win, the star shared his truth in an interview with Gay Times after having taken a step back from the limelight.

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