Don Philip Says 'The X Factor' Bullied Him Into Coming Out at Audition

Don Philip is claiming that he was bullied into coming out before his The X Factor audition and that producers edited out the ten minutes of his interview that contained that information before putting it on the air.

News that Britney's old duet partner came out to her on The X Factor leaked back in June.  However, after the cringe-worthy audition footage was aired sans the coming out story, Philip told Access Hollywood that, “Backstage, I’d talked to the producers about what was my secret was. And I mentioned that my secret was I was gay, but I really didn't want to talk about it on the show. So, minutes later when I got on stage, L.A. Reid said, ‘What’s the secret? What’s the secret?’ over and over again. And I had to say it,” Philip claimed. “I just felt like they were going to say it so I felt like I needed to say it first. And, I was just so emotionally distraught, I couldn't pull it together to actually sing."

In response FOX released the following statement:

“The judges were not given any information at all about Mr. Philip prior to his audition. The personal information that Mr. Philip quickly volunteered at the start of his audition was a surprise to the judges, who asked what had happened during the past 10 years, as they were interested in Mr. Philip’s career. While we understand his decision to discuss his personal life, Mr. Philip’s sexual orientation was not something that any of the judges or producers felt was relevant to this audition,” the statement read. “When advertising and promoting open auditions, thousands of people are informed about the ways to enter the show. Mr. Philip himself chose to enter for a chance to win a five million dollar recording contract.”

Coerced or not, the whole thing was certainly not pleasant to watch.  I felt bad for the guy, even though as one my friends is fond of saying "he knew the water was cold when he jumped in."

There's a lot of reasons they might have chosen to cut out the "I'm gay" portion, but the decision to do so did leave fans of the show speculating that his deep, dark secret was drug addiction, mental illness or something rather more sinister than being gay.