Billy Bush reveals he tried to out Ricky Martin: ‘I really feel badly’

Billy Bush was livin’ la vida loca when he asked this question.

The entertainment host, 53, recently reflected on his first-ever interview with Ricky Martin. The singer, 53, had just released his self-titled debut album in 1999 when he sat down to talk with Bush.

The reporter called their conversation “the most uncomfortable celebrity situation I ever had.”

“I was young and working out of New York the first couple years on Access Hollywood, East Coast correspondent,” Bush recalled on Thursday’s episode of the “Literally! with Rob Lowe” podcast.

“I got the call to go down and interview Ricky Martin in Miami for his new album and Mariah Carey the night before,” he continued. “I know Barbara Walters had asked him about his sexuality. I’m like, ‘Wouldn’t that be a big newsmaker?’”

The late journalist, who died in 2022, put the young artist on the spot during a live 2000 television interview.

“You could stop these rumors,” Walters stated. “You could say, ‘Yes, I am gay or no, I’m not.’” 

Martin was visibly shocked before responding, “I just don’t feel like it.”

Bush shared that the night before his interview, he asked people in his hotel lobby what they wanted to know about Martin. He confessed that the majority wanted to know if he was gay.

The next day, the television personality asked Martin point-blank. The Puerto Rico native immediately took off his microphone.

“He gets up and he walks off the set,” Bush explained, “and I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh s–t.’”

Along with receiving some angry phone calls from his superiors, the Access Hollywood alum felt awful.

“I’m like, ‘OK, I really feel badly.’ I just feel badly because he was legitimately hurt, and I’m not in the business of hurting people,” Bush confessed. “I am in the business of figuring out who I am and where I’m going. And you need to be able to make mistakes in life. Remember that people.”

He went back and apologized to the pop star.

“I’m like, ‘Ricky, I am so sorry for asking that question,’” Bush reminisced. “‘I don’t know what I was thinking. It was a cowboy question. It was inappropriate. I’m so sorry. And I promise you this will never see the light of day. I will smash that tape with a hammer.’”

The Extra correspondent teased to host Rob Lowe, 61, “I should have smashed another one.”

Bush said Martin told him that he would address his sexuality at some point, but not on Access Hollywood at the time. 

Bush concluded by stating that he learned a “valuable lesson” from the altercation.

As he put it, “Don’t be an a–hole. Don’t be an idiot.”

The Post reached out to a rep for Martin.

The Grammy winner rose to fame as a child performer in Puerto Rico. Martin then joined the boy band Menudo in 1984.

Rumors swirled about his sexuality in the ’90s and 2000s. However, he dated TV presenter Rebecca de Alba for seven years, from 1995 to 2002.

In 2010, Martin came out publicly in a post on his website, two years after welcoming twins Matteo and Valentino, 16, via surrogate in 2008.

Martin went on to marry artist Jwan Yosef in 2017, and the pair welcomed daughter Lucia, 6, and son Renn, 5, via surrogate. Martin and Yosef, 40, split in 2023.

“Sexuality is one complicated thing,” Martin told People in 2021. “It’s not black and white. It’s filled with colors. When I was dating women, I was in love with women. It felt right, it felt beautiful. You can’t fake chemistry —the chemistry was there with them. I wasn’t misleading anyone.”

He also reflected on his uncomfortable encounter with Walters.

“When she dropped the question, I felt violated because I was just not ready to come out,” the musician told the outlet. “I was very afraid. There’s a little PTSD with that.”

The “Palm Royale” star pondered, “A lot of people say, ‘What would you do differently?’ Well, maybe I would have come out in that interview. It would’ve been great because when I came out, it just felt amazing.”

Martin added, “When it comes to my sexuality, when it comes to who I am, I want to talk about what I’m made of, about everything that I am. Because if you hide it, it’s a life-or-death situation.”

Just last year, Martin opened up about how his father, a psychologist named Enrique Martín Negroni, encouraged him to come out.

“He said, ‘What are you going to teach your kids, to lie? You got to be open,’” he said while on SiriusXM’s “Andy Cohen Live” in 2024.

“I want to help you. How can we do this?” Martin recalled his dad telling him. “And I’m like, ‘All right, dad, I’m working on it. Give me a second. I don’t know how. I don’t know if it’s through an interview. I don’t know if I want to write a letter and tweet it. I don’t know. Give me a break. It’ll come.’”

The artist said that coming out on his website “felt amazing.” 

“I wish I could come out 20 times,” Martin gushed. “Of course, I started crying like a baby. You know, I pressed send and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s it?’ My assistant, who’s still my assistant, Paco, he was next to me, and I’m like, ‘I think I need a hug.’”