In a new interview, Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos revealed that he is gay after splitting with his wife last August

Michael Angelakos (28) spoke candidly for the first time about his sexuality, and addressed his difficulties in coming out in public.

“I am saying something that I’ve never said before publicly,” Angelakos said to Brett Easton Ellis on his podcast. He added that he told “very few people in [his] personal small circles because [he doesn’t] know how to talk about it”.

The singer announced that he was splitting with his wife of 2 years, Kristy Mucci, in August but says that she has been “incredible” throughout.

“I just wanted so badly to be straight, because I love her so much. I think that was one of the most painful things when we decided to separate.

“When I decided to really deal with it head on… she was the one who spearheaded it in a way… She said, ‘You need to figure out what’s going on with your sexuality because you can’t hate yourself any more.'”

Angelakos also revealed that he took so long to come out, because he had no gay role models.  “I didn’t see the powerful dude at the corner office of the Fortune 500 company, even though I didn’t aspire to be that, that guy wasn’t gay the way he was portrayed,” he said.

“So I just thought, well, if I become gay i’m never going to become any of these cool things that I keep wanting to be. And it was as though how much of myself can I edit so that I can be? And honestly that wasn’t a conscious decision, at least after a certain point, but certainly now I look back at it and I’m just like: well, how much would have been better if I’d just stopped caring?”

The musician took to Twitter after the podcast went live and said that he was grateful for the support.

everything’s going to be okay

— Passion Pit (@passionpit) November 9, 2015

i’ve received so many kind and supportive messages today. thank you for reaching out and being so kind to me. — Passion Pit (@passionpit) November 10, 2015

You can listen to the full podcast below: