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There are a lot of words that fans can use to describe Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, but “homophobic” is usually not one of them. Martin has shown a lot of support for LGBTQ rights over the years.

But people might be shocked to learn that he used to be a different person growing up. In fact, Martin’s road to accepting different sexualities was a difficult one that he does not discuss often.

Read on below to learn more about how the singer came to be the LGBTQ ally that we know him as today.

Chris Martin admits that he was ‘very homophobic’ when he was younger

Chris Martin of Coldplay speaks during the Pepsi Super Bowl 50 Halftime Press Conference.
Chris Martin | Mike Lawrie/Getty Images

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Martin opened up about his teenage years and when he was discovering his own sexuality.

Martin shared that when he was in boarding school, he was not the typical macho, athletic guy. He “walked a bit funny” and “bounced a bit,” which led other kids to question whether he was gay or not.

Martin also grew up in a conservative Christian family and formed his early views of being LGBTQ from there. “I was also very homophobic because I was like, ‘If I’m gay, I’m completely fucked for eternity,'” Martin said.

He continued: “I was a kid discovering sexuality. ‘Maybe I’m gay, maybe I’m this, maybe I’m that, I can’t be this’ so I was terrified… I was in a boarding school with a bunch of quite hardcore kids who were also going through their things and, for a few years, they would very much say, ‘You’re definitely gay,’ in quite a full-on manner, quite aggressively telling me that and it was weird for me for a few years.”

Even though the taunts made Martin worried for a while, his perspective on life changed when he was around 15 years old. At this point, Martin came to the realization that there was nothing wrong with him if he were gay.

“I don’t know what happened. I was like, ‘Yeah, so what?’ and then it all just stopped overnight,” Martin shared. “It was very interesting. [I had] a bit more exposure to the world, thinking, ‘A lot of my heroes are gay,’ or whatever. Whatever they are, it doesn’t really matter.”

Chris Martin is now a big supporter of the LGBTQ community

It is not uncommon for male singers to have people wondering about their sexuality. Ever since Coldplay became popular, Martin’s sexuality has been the subject of some conversations as well.

That has not stopped him from showing a lot of support for the LGBTQ community. Martin is no longer the young kid who thought that there was something wrong with someone if they were gay. These days, he is known for flying the LGBTQ flag at his concerts and showing the phrase “Believe in Love” with a rainbow background at the Super Bowl halftime show.

In 2017, during a show in Dublin, Ireland, Martin thanked the country for electing a “gay, immigrant” prime minister. He was referring to Leo Varadkar, who was the first openly gay prime minister of Ireland as well as the first prime minister of Indian heritage.

Who is Chris Martin currently dating?

As far as Martin’s dating history goes, he seems to have only dated women.

Martin was married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow for around 13 years. The couple was a very popular one in the 2000s, but they officially divorced in 2016. They currently co-parent two children together: Apple (b. 2004) and Moses (b. 2006).

Since 2017, Martin has been seeing actress Dakota Johnson.