Wayne Brady is proud of who he is.
The Let’s Make a Deal game show host came out as pansexual in August 2023, and has since opened up about being able to finally live his life authentically.
“I don’t give a f–k anymore,” Brady exclusively told Us Weekly at the Advocate + Out Pride cover launch party in June 2024. “I no longer walk around with shame or fear of blackmail — and that’s the biggest thing.”
After initially not knowing about pansexuality, Brady began looking into what it meant to be attracted to all genders.
“I had to do research and find out what it was that I (am),” he told People on the red carpet at the 2024 GLAAD Awards, where he served as host of the awards show. “The biggest misconception — and I even make a joke about it onstage tonight — is that people think that you’re an indecisive bisexual. No, no. Let me set you straight.”
He continued, “What the definition basically boils down to is, regardless of gender, regardless. So that means that I am happily free to fall in love with anybody here. If you’re gay, if you’re straight, if you’re non-binary, trans, I don’t care. It’s the person, which in my mind is the ultimate in acceptance and loving.”
Brady first came out to his ex-wife, Mandie Taketa, and their daughter, Maile Brady, and was met with unwavering support.
“I just said, ‘Great.’ As I knew coming out would help him be happier,” Taketa said while recalling their initial conversation about her ex’s sexuality. Brady’s daughter’s response was similar.
“I just said, ‘Okay,'” she told People at the time, breaking into a grin.
Keep reading for everything Wayne Brady has said about coming out as pansexual.
His Path to Self-Discovery
Brady shared in August 2023 that the death of beloved actor and comedian Robin Williams “really impacted” him and sent him on his journey to figuring out who he was. (Williams died by suicide in 2014. He was 63 years old.)
“After Robin’s death, I got involved in certain groups, like Glenn Close‘s group, Bring Change to Mind, being very vocal about mental health,” he told People. “Once I opened that door to myself though, I had to start learning about myself, and I had to start owning up to things that maybe I’d either repressed, suppressed, or just didn’t wanna deal with.”
He explained, “I gave joy at work. But the pity is then I come home, and I don’t have that joy. I have joy because I love my daughter and I love my family. I love being a dad more than chocolate ice cream. But that can’t be my only joy. I have to love myself. And that’s when I realized that I had a problem because if I can spend everything on stage and on camera but then I come home and there is a love deficit, what is going on?”
Love Addiction
The Bold and the Beautiful actor got candid about how going to therapy for love addiction helped him process his sexuality.
“It’s a part of my journey,” he shared. “I had to start examining why I was looking for myself and happiness in a slew of people. If I marry this person, then everything will be fine. If I date this person, everything will be fine. I’ll be good. I’ll be fixed. That is obviously a problem.”
Brady added, “And so, in doing that work, I now know absolutely that love addiction is borne of trauma. I can’t feel any shame around that, just like I wouldn’t shame somebody if they said they were addicted to meth or cocaine. That’s a sickness.”
Reflection
Brady also reflected on his coming out journey in an Instagram post in August 2023.
“The people I admire the most are the ones brave enough to be themselves unapologetically,” he wrote in part. “This shouldn’t shake anyone’s world, but if it bothers you at all, that’s your business: I was so afraid of having my manhood questioned, but screw that. A ‘real man’ in my eyes, isn’t afraid to be honest and happy. From now on, I’ll be over here living my best life!”
Facing Fears
Brady exclusively told Us in June 2024 that he feared coming out as pansexual would upend his professional life.
“I didn’t know how I would get past the hurdle of care,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, if I say certain things, will I lose some of the audience that watches my shows, and that watch the daytime shows, and will I lose this?’”
He added, “I actually care very much because I love my job. But if you can’t accept me as a person, then maybe my humor isn’t for you. Maybe you shouldn’t be watching me [or] maybe you shouldn’t support me. There’s somebody else who spews a little more flavor of hate that you can go and hang out with.”
Reality Show
Brady and his blended family will be featured in the new Hulu and Freeform reality series, Wayne Brady: The Family Remix, set to air in July 2024.
“Not only do I feel proud showing it, [but] I feel a sense of responsibility,” he told Us. “I think that for a young woman [like] my daughter growing up, watching her mother and her father have a relationship that doesn’t work out in the conventional sense, but seeing her father love her mother, support her mother, and her mother support her father, and we say, ‘We are here and we have each other,’ and there’s nothing acrimonious, that there’s love, I think that goes a long way towards her relationship model.”
