In The Know

Spacey comes out as gay amid allegations of advance on teen boy

Kevin Spacey, star of the hit Netflix series “House of Cards,” on Monday publicly disclosed his sexual orientation for the first time following allegations that he made a sexual pass at a 14-year-old boy in the 1980s.

Spacey in a statement to Twitter said he will now live his life “as a gay man.”

{mosads}“As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man,” Spacey said.

The statement follows accusations from actor Anthony Rapp, who told BuzzFeed that Spacey made a sexual pass at him in 1986. Spacey would have been 26 years old at the time, while Rapp would have been 14, BuzzFeed noted.

“He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me,” Rapp told the news outlet.

“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said of Spacey. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”

Spacey in his statement said while he did not remember the incident with Rapp, he owes him an apology for the “deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp as an actor. I’m beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago,” Spacey said.

“But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”

The accusations from Rapp come in the wake of numerous allegations of sexual assault and harassment against film producer Harvey Weinstein.