American entertainment icon Marie Osmond admitted Tuesday that, after suffering horrible sexual abuse growing up, she believed as young as 8 years old that she might have been gay.
Osmond, 60, opened up about her past on CBS’ “The Talk” after singer Miley Cyrus, who recently split from husband actor Liam Hemsworth, faced criticism for telling women they “don’t have to be gay” because “there are good men out there.”
Cyrus went on to explain in the since-deleted Instagram Live post that she felt like she “had to be gay because I thought all guys were evil, but it’s not true.”
So on Tuesday, Osmond said she sympathizes with what Cyrus was saying.
“The reason is because I had been sexually abused to the point that men, they made me sick,” Osmond explained. “I didn’t trust them, I didn’t like them. So when I hear [Cyrus] say that, there was a point in my life — I had so many body issues … and I was looking at women and I thought, ‘Why am I looking at women? I must be gay.’”
The beloved entertainer then credited her five “great brothers” and “amazing father” for changing her perspective on her sexuality.
“And then, I realized, because I’m a thinker, ‘Why did God give me these great brothers and why did he give me this amazing father?’” Osmond recalled. “Truly, they changed my opinion of men, which made me feel that it was something I was going through.”
The strong and loving men in Osmond’s life “changed the way I looked at myself,” she added.