SPUD ACTOR COMES OUT

Troye Sivan, the 18-year-old star of the popular South African Spud movie series, has come out as gay in a frank YouTube video.

Sivan was born in South Africa before emigrating to Australia when he was two. He won the coveted role of Spud in the two films based on the bestselling books.

In the video, posted last week, Sivan said: “I have something to tell you guys. On August 7th 2010, I told my family that I am gay. And now on August 7th 2013, I want you guys to know that I’m gay.”

He went on to say: “It feels kind of weird to have to announce something like this on the Internet, but I feel like a lot of you guys are real, genuine friends of mine. And I share everything on the Internet. I share every aspect of my life on the Internet. Whether or not that’s a good thing, I don’t know.”

“But this is not something that I’m ashamed of. It’s not something that anyone should be ashamed of. And that’s why I’m making this video,” added Sivan.

He said that he always knew that there was something different about himself, but was in denial for some time about his sexuality, explaining that the “word gay scared me a lot when I was younger”.

Sivan said that his family and friends had been supportive after he came out to them. He also recounted what happened when he told his father that he is gay.

“I asked him, ‘Dad, do you still love me?’ And he looked at me like I was absolutely crazy, and said, ‘Yes, of course I still love you.’ And that was that.”

The star, who also appeared as the young James Howlett in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is not only an actor and singer but has also built up a large following on his YouTube channel, with around 500,000 subscribers.

Sivan expressed the hope that his coming out video will help other gay teens.

“The majority of the reason that I’m doing this today is I hope people, like 14-year-old Troye, are going to find this video, because I watched pretty much ever coming out video on YouTube that has ever been posted. Those brave, brave, brave people on YouTube; without them, I don’t know where I’d be,” he said.

Sivan’s coming out video has been viewed almost 800,000 times.