Joey Graceffa Recalls ‘Amazing Race’ Producer Trying To Get Him To Come Out On Camera: “Truly Traumatizing”
More than a decade after his Amazing Race journey, Joey Graceffa recently opened up about an uncomfortable moment with a producer on the CBS reality competition series.
The YouTube star looked back at his time on Seasons 22 and 24 of the show as “truly traumatizing” after a producer “wanted me to come out” as LGBTQ on camera before he was ready.
“The Amazing Race was a lot of fun, but it was truly traumatizing. It’s crazy,” he told OUT Magazine. “They wanted me to come out on the show!”
Deadline has reached out to CBS for comment.
Graceffa added, “There was a gay producer who was like, ‘You should come out on the show.’ I was like, ‘I’ll come out if you write me that $1 million check at the finish line!’ That didn’t happen. I would not have been ready back then.”
Meghan Camarena, Joey Graceffa, Brendon Villegas, Rachel Reilly, Margie O’Donnell, Luke Adams, Mark Jackson, Leo Temory, Jamal Zadran, Nate ‘Big Easy’ Lofton, Herbert ‘Flight Time’ Lang, Jet McCoy, Cord McCoy, Jennifer Wayne, Caroline Cutbirth, Phil Keoghan Connor O’Leary, David O’Leary, Mallory Ervin, Jessica Hoel, John Erck, Natalie Anderson and Nadiya Anderson on Season 24 of ‘The Amazing Race’ (Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images)
Competing with Meghan Camarena on both his seasons of Amazing Racethe pair was eliminated seventh during Season 22 in 2013, before going home third during Season 24 in 2014.
Graceffa came out as gay in a 2015 video aptly titled ‘YES I’M GAY‘ after releasing his music video for ‘Don’t Wait‘, which featured him kissing another man.
