Sportsman cries as he comes out to his mum on live TV
Coming out to your parents is emotional enough.
Doing it on live TV in front of nearly two million viewers? Oh boy.
That’s exactly what professional baseball player Ryan Santana did this week, on US reality show This Is Life Live.
Flying all the way from Australia to his home city of Phoenix, Arizona, Santana finally revealed the secret he had been hiding from his mother for his entire life.
“She’s the best,” he told the audience, before adding: “I tell my mum everything.”
His mother, Lorraine, had Ryan when she was 16, and as he grew up the two forged a very close relationship.
“I tell her everything about my life, everything that is going on – except for, you know. The one thing,” he said anxiously.
She told the camera that being a single mother raising Ryan and his brother John was “tough,” but that she thought she had done a good job.
“He’s my best friend.”
Before he left Adelaide, Ryan decided to tell two of his teammates he’s gay, as a test run – but it went poorly.
He told the camera beforehand that it was “crazy how hard it is for me for this conversation to happen,” but it was about to get even more difficult.
His female friend informed the baseball players that they’re all going to have dinner on a “romantic rooftop” at sunset, and one of them – Shotty – reacted badly.
“Oh my god, that’s so f***ing gay,” he said with a smile on his face.
Ryan, shocked and upset, admitted he was “completely having second thoughts” afterwards.
But when he got to the airport in Arizona, he made his mind up to tell his mother.
And it’s a good thing he did.
With tears in his eyes, he told her: “I know you’re wondering why you are here right now.
“You mean the most to me in the world that’s why it’s so hard for me to tell you that…I’m gay.”
His mother, relieved but clearly a little put-out, responded: “Why wouldn’t you tell me a long time ago?
“Out of all the things you could talk to me about, you should’ve told me so wouldn’t have been so alone.”
Ryan replied: “I was just worried about how you would take it. How accepting you would be.”
Joining him in tearing up, she told her son: “I’m accepting or anything and everything with you boys.”
Watch the full video below:
