Billy Bush has admitted he once tried to out Ricky Martin on camera but later destroyed the footage.
The 53-year-old American radio host showed up on the latest episode of the Literally! with Rob Lowe podcast, where he revealed that he has worked as an entertainment reporter for many years and met many celebrities but his first meeting with Martin was “the most uncomfortable celebrity situation I ever had.”
For the unversed, Bush’s first time crossed paths with the 53-year-old Puerto Rican singer-songwriter and actor around the time when he dropped his hit song Livin’ La Vida Loca off his self-titled 1999 album.
He recalled, “I was young and working out of New York the first couple years on Access Hollywood, East Coast correspondent. I got the call to go down and interview Ricky Martin in Miami for his new album and Mariah Carey the night before.”
The Extra star added, “I know Barbara Walters had asked him about his s**uality. I’m like, ‘Wouldn’t that be a big news maker?'”
Bush went on to share that the night before the interview, he was in the hotel and asked people what they wanted to know about Martin and to his surprise, they wanted to know if he was gay.
When the interview started, he asked the Maria hitmaker about that question but he quickly took off his microphone and left.
“He gets up and he walks off the set and I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh s****,’” Bush recounted.
The Big Hero 6 star then got phone calls from higher authorities, as he said, “I’m like, ‘OK, I really feel badly.’ I just feel badly because he was legitimately hurt, and I’m not in the business of hurting people. I am in the business of figuring out who I am and where I’m going. And you need to be able to make mistakes in life. Remember that people.”
However, he ended up reaching the interview room and apologised to Martin for hurting him.
“I’m like, ‘Ricky, I am so sorry for asking that question.’ ‘I don’t know what I was thinking. It was a cowboy question. It was inappropriate. I’m so sorry. And I promise you this will never see the light of day. I will smash that tape with a hammer,’” Bush remembered.
