"American Idol" alum Clay Aiken says he was accidentally outed while embroiled in a daytime TV controversy two decades ago.
Aiken, 47, reflected on the 2006 controversy in a Sept. 17 interview on Page Six Radio, recalling how Rosie O'Donnell "outed" him on "The View" while defending him after an awkward on-air exchange with Kelly Ripa on "Live with Regis and Kelly."
“I died inside a lot that week. I was in LA when that aired,” Aiken recalled. “And I don't have any ill feelings against Rosie. She did mean well.”
At the time Aiken, who was filling in for Regis Philbin on the Nov. 17 episode, jokingly placed his hand over Ripa's mouth so he could speak to the guests. Ripa called the gesture "a no-no" and addressed the incident again when Philbin returned
Nov. 20. She then called into "The View" the following day as the controversy continued.
On the Nov. 21 episode, O'Donnell told "The View" audience, "Now listen, to me that was a homophobic remark. If that was a straight man, if that was a cute man, if that was a guy that she didn't question his sexuality, she would have said a different thing. I was offended by that."
Ripa slammed O'Donnell's comment over the phone, calling it "outrageous" and explaining Aiken's move was unsanitary because "he's shaking hands with everybody in the audience."
O'Donnell replied, "From where I sit as a gay person in the world that I have to tell you, that's how it came off to me."
Aiken recalled learning about O'Donnell's comments while he was in Los Angeles.
"I got woken up by my son's mother who said, 'You need to wake up because Rosie just outed you on The View,'" he told Page Six Radio.
Aiken said he felt he and Tori Spelling "took control" of the narrative by making light of the incident while presenting at the American Music Awards, which took place the same day as Ripa and O'Donnell's debate on "The View."
"I've thought about it more in the past three months because of folks asking about it," Aiken said.
USA TODAY has reached out to O'Donnell's representative for comment.
Kelly Ripa incident was 'catastrophic' for Clay Aiken
For five years after he left "Idol" as a runner-up to Ruben Studdard, the "Spamalot" Broadway actor denied being gay in interviews. He came out in an August 2008 People magazine feature on the birth of his son, Parker, acknowledging he had been closeted since college but realized at 29 that "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things."
Aiken rehashed the incident in a June interview on the Hollywood Raw podcast, calling it "probably the most catastrophic week of my life."
"I wasn't getting to talk," Aiken recalled. "They had cue cards with my name on them. I tried to be funny, and I did what I did, which was incredibly innocent. And then it got a little cold in the room. I felt bad and I was worried I had upset her."
Aiken later sent Ripa flowers, and she followed up with a call.
"She apologized for it becoming blown out of proportion and everything," he recalled. "She said, 'I'd love to come back on the show anytime.'"
"I tried to come back on the show, but we were not allowed," he said. "So I just haven't tried since. It's not a big deal."
Contributing: Charlie Carballo, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Clay Aiken says Rosie O'Donnell accidentally outed him on 'The View'
