Darren Hayes was “deeply sad” at the height of his fame.
The former Savage Garden frontman, who has made a comeback with his new solo song, ‘Let’s Try Being In Love’, came out as gay in 2006 when he married his husband of almost two decades, Richard Cullen, and he’s admitted not being able to show his true identity during the ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ hitmakers’ heyday made him unhappy.
He said: “I’ve been married to Richard [Cullen] for almost 17 years, [and] I’m in this really comfortable place in my life. But at the same time at mid-life I’m grieving the fact I never got to celebrate who I really was at the period of my life where I was most famous.
“I look at this world we live in now, where someone like [gay singer] Lil Nas X can push forward his true self, full of pride and self-love and have the chance to be loved for who he truly is.
“I was realising with great sadness I didn’t get that experience.
“A lot of the time when I was my most famous, I was deeply sad.”
Darren was previously married to actress Kathleen De Leon, 44, and his new single is about leaving behind something so “beautiful and innocent” for his freedom, and becoming “proud of the gay me”.
He explained: “I’m looking back on that first period of my life where I’m married to a woman.
“I’m realising that in order to be free I have to destroy something beautiful and innocent. Scott’s character represents the freight train of my future sexuality and that’s gonna emerge no matter what.
“I wanted to show I love the feminine in me, be proud of the gay me. There’s a dance scene that is so passionate, everything’s alive and thriving and blooming. That’s how I feel in general about music. And that’s a hugely sharp contrast to how I felt 10 years ago.”
Australian pop duo Savage Garden – in which Darren was joined by Daniel Jones – shot to fame in the mid-90s and early 2000s, topping the charts with a slew of hit singles, including ‘I Want You’, ‘To the Moon and Back’ and ‘Truly Madly Deeply’.
The group disbanded in 2001, and the following year, Darren released his debut solo album, ‘Spin’.
The singer-songwriter’s last studio album was 2011’s ‘Secret Codes and Battleships’.