Blue’s Duncan James says his 16-year-old daughter gets trolled because he’s gay
"‘Isn’t it disgusting your dad’s gay?'"
Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Instagram/Instagram/@duncanjames
Duncan James has revealed that his 16-year-old daughter Tianie gets trolled online because he is gay.
Speaking in a new interview, the member of boyband Blue says that the teenager is at an age where she’s always on her phone – so online abuse is a sad inevitability.
Duncan, who is gay and recently made his TV debut with boyfriend Rodrigo, is a dad to Tianie with former girlfriend Claire.
“People are just awful”
Speaking to The Sun, 42-year-old Duncan said: “She is at an age where she is very much into her phone, and her friends are all on social media platforms like TikTok — it’s very much her life.
“But she’s also aware that people could be horrible. People can be quite nasty about me being gay and say quite horrible things about the fact that I’m a gay dad.
“People have written to her, saying, ‘Isn’t it disgusting your dad’s gay? How do you feel? ‘You must be ashamed of him’, and stuff like that, and you’re just like, ‘Why are you writing to a kid saying stuff like that? Are you really crazy?’ People are just awful.”
The star added: “I’ve had quite a lot of people from other countries writing to me in disbelief that I’m gay, saying I’m going to burn in hell, it’s a sin and I’m going to be punished by God.
“I think it’s probably because they’re frightened about it or they don’t have the awareness or their religion has dictated that it’s wrong and it’s disgusting.”
Duncan and his Blue bandmates are known for hits like ‘All Rise’ and ‘Too Close’, and have sold 15 million records worldwide.
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