He had previously avoided questions about his sexuality.
Announcing the news in a long statement on his website, he wrote: ‘I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man,’ adding: ‘I am very blessed to be who I am.’
But the Puerto Rican star, who is a co-judge on Australia’s The Voice, has admitted he used to be actively nasty to people he knew were homosexual.
‘I look back now and realize I would bully people who I knew were gay’ he told the magazine. ‘I had internalized homophobia. To realize that was comfronting to me. I wanted to get away from that.’
Martin said that having his twin sons via a surrogate four years ago forced him to come clean about his sexuality, as he didn’t want Matteo and Valentino ‘growing up in a house of lies…or thinking there was something wrong with being gay.’
Ricky fathers the boys with partner Carlos Gonzalez Abells, also from Puerto Rico, who works in the finance industry. The couple are notoriously private, but did appear in Spain’s Vanity Fair with their children in 2012.