He played a gay man in two movies and on one of the most popular television shows for six years, but Willie Garson was merely acting. The truth is, he's straight in real life, but he avoided questions about his sexuality for years.
"I didn't talk about it because I found it to be offensive to gay people," the beloved "Sex and the City" star told Page Six. "People playing gay characters jumping up and down screaming that they're not gay, like that would somehow be a bad thing if they were."
Willie actually became quite slick when he was asked in interviews about his sexuality.
"When the question would come up during the show I would say, 'When I was on "White Collar" no one ever asked me if I was a conman, and when I was on "NYPD Blue," nobody ever asked me if I was a murderer. This is what we do for a living, portray people,'" the 56-year-old actor explained.
Will, who played Carrie's friend Stanford Blatch, added, "I've never been straight closeted, is that a thing?"
Still, due to the show's massive popularity and because he played his character so effortlessly, it affected his dating life.
"At the beginning, you would approach someone at a bar and realize, 'Oh, they want to be Stanford's best friend.' They don't necessarily want to sleep with you," he said.
Willie starred on the show from 1998 to 2004. He was also featured in both "Sex and the City" movies. These days he's single and has a 19-year-old son Nathen, whom he adopted from foster care 12 years ago.
"I very much always wanted to have a child," he said. "I had a long relationship, off and on, for like 20 years and she never wanted to have a child, which is fine. And it was like my mid-life crisis, I really wanted a child more than anything else and I got one. We're partners, my kid and I."