*Andrew Gillum, former rising superstar in the Democratic Party, sat down with Tamron Hall during the season 2 premiere of the “Tamron Hall Show” and revealed for the first time that he identifies as bisexual.
The interview was pre-taped in the politician’s hometown of Tallahassee, Florida, where he served as mayor from 2014 to 2018. He spoke candidly with Tamron in his first interview since being found by police on the bathroom floor of the Mondrian South Beach Hotel along with another man, later identified as an escort, who was struggling to breathe after what was described as a possible drug overdose. The widely publicized incident led the 41-year-old to enter rehab and therapy and retreat from his once-promising career.
Gillum, joined by his wife of 11 years, R. Jai at various points throughout the wide-ranging interview, revealed for the first time that he identifies as bisexual and discussed the current state of his marriage.
“To be very honest with you, when you didn’t ask the question, you put it out there, is whether or not I identify as gay. And the answer is, I don’t identify as gay, but I do identify as bisexual. And that is something that I have never shared publicly before,” he told Hall.
R. Jai, who, fighting through tears, described her reaction to seeing the photos of her husband for the first time sharing, “It was hard to see. That’s my husband. The strongest man I know.” When asked what she saw in the photos R. Jai said, “That he was helpless. Honestly, I got angry. I thought he was being taken advantage of in a way that was unfair. I thought that the whole situation, if it had happened to a woman, it would be a very different narrative.” She continued, “If anyone had a tabloid with a woman lying naked on the floor, would the pictures have even made it out? It would have been criminal.”
R. Jai also addressed the fact that her husband revealed his sexual preferences before they married and explained how she handled that revelation, saying, “I just believe that love and sexuality exist on a spectrum. All I care about is what’s between us and what agreement do we make to be in relationship with each other?”
She went on to explain that she is not sure if she would have gone through with the marriage knowing that their covenant would eventually be revealed sharing, “I mean there are couples that have open marriages, there are couples who have all different kinds of covenants with one another that everybody else doesn’t know. And at the point where you have to reveal your covenant to the world, to then be criticized or questioned with good intentions or bad, that’s a lot of pressure. And so I’ve told him before, saying that yes was solely about me and you. It wasn’t about me, you and the world. So, I don’t know, you know someone has asked me before, would you have made a different decision and I had to say, I don’t know. I think perhaps, being as young as we were, you know I wasn’t even 30 yet, I may have said no because at that age, I know I wouldn’t have had the maturity to say, while I am privately okay with this, I don’t know that I have the strength to continually defend my relationship or my marriage to anyone who doesn’t understand.”
Gillum was also brought to tears when discussing his wife’s unyielding commitment to him saying, “I’ve always known about R. Jai’s — her resilience. Her strength. How much she’s believed in me. How much she’s always had my back.”
Below, Gillum talks about the fallout surrounding the events of March 12.
