“I was straight, I had two kids and I thought I had it all figured out.”The 41-year-old celebrity hairstylist, Chris Appleton, known as the hairstylist for Kardashian, as well as other celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande, and is behind some of their memorable looks at events such as the Met Gala. He is also a lifestyle contributor on Barrymore’s daytime talk show, often appearing on the show to give his take. He and his long-term girlfriend welcomed two children when he was in his early 20s.
“I think coming out later on in life — I was 26 — was incredibly difficult because I had two kids, I had a girlfriend I’d been with for nine years, I thought I had it all figured out. Everybody else also thought I had it figured out,” he began. “So when you’re all of a sudden then changing the record, people are like: ‘Well, you must have always known,’ and I didn’t realize I did.” (Photo shows Applegate (on the left), with his later husband, Lukas Gage.)
“I was bullied quite a bit at school, and people used to say I was gay because I did hair,” Chris went on. “I never was too focused on sexuality, but people at school always mentioned it, and, as a kid, you just don’t ever want to be different — I already felt different because I was dyslexic.”
“I was, I guess, just determined to prove everyone wrong, but so much that I did myself a injustice,” he admitted. “It wasn’t until I experienced it at 26 that I was also going through it as well as everyone else. The difficult thing is, then you’re hurting people around you that you’ve committed to, and you feel that.”
“People feel like they know you, and you feel like you know them, and all of a sudden you’re telling a different story which you’re trying to figure out,” Chris added. “So it was really hard for a few years, it was really difficult.”
“It sounds cheesy, but there’s honestly so much power in living authentically and being authentically yourself,” Chris acknowledged. “I think once I let go of all the guilt and shame of it all, my whole life changed. I moved to America; it was amazing how much grew and changed.”
Chris also discussed his current relationship with his ex, who he is now good friends with. In fact, the star revealed that he recently got emotional while on the phone with her as he reflected on the person he used to be.
“I saw this video and I posted it a couple of weeks back, where I’m on a photo shoot — the first photo shoot I ever did — and she was there at the time,” he shared. “It actually made me tearful because I just looked so light and free and so happy to be there, and it made me really emotional.”
“I rang her because she was there, and she was like: ‘Oh my god, I remember that photo shoot, I remember going through 10,000 pictures, and it was just incredibly stressful,’” Chris recalled. “And she’s like: ‘Why are you emotional?’ I was like: ‘I don’t know, I just remember him, I remember that guy.’”
“Like, I was straight; I had two kids; I thought I had it all figured out,” he went on. “And she’s like: ‘You know, it was really hard because I think you had to mourn a part of someone that you had to let go.’ She was incredibly supportive of what I felt. I was told as a kid that gay was wrong, and gay men… You know, it’s not a good thing. It doesn’t fit into the box.”
Chris went on to share his pride for their two children, 21-year-old Billy and 20-year-old Kitty, acknowledging that he is grateful to be able to show them a world outside of his hometown of Leicester, England. “I mean, they’re amazing, and my one goal in life was always… I think the best thing you can do as a parent is to get them an experience outside of their hometown,” he shared. “In Leicester, where I grew up, people kind of grow, they get married, kids, and it’s kind of like a formula.”
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