Hollywood actor Colman Domingo, best known for his role as Joe Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, has opened up about the deeply personal experience of coming out as gay to his family in the early 1990s — a journey marked by love, surprise, and a touch of sibling rivalry over who heard the news first.

The Strip Club Confession

Domingo, now 56, recalled in a new interview with Men's Health UK magazine that his older brother Derek was the first person he came out to. The moment happened at a strip club, where Domingo pulled Derek aside to share the news.

He recalled: ‘(I knew I) came from love. I told him that I was gay. He looked at me and was just like, ‘What?’ He just couldn’t believe it. Eventually, he said, ‘I don’t care, man. I love you anyway’. And he just hugged me. Then he said, ‘Have you told anyone else?’ I said, no. He said, ‘Alright, this stays between you and me’.’

Sister’s Reaction: Why Wasn’t I First?

The secret, however, did not stay contained for long. Within two days, Domingo received a call from his older sister Averie, who was, in his words, ‘p* off’ — not because of the news itself, but because she had not been told first.

‘She was p* off. I said, ‘Look, yes, it was really hard for me to tell him’. She said, ‘No, no, no. Why didn’t you tell me first?’ She was p* off because she didn’t get the information first,’ he said.

Mother and Stepfather’s Unconditional Support

Shortly after, Domingo came out to his mother Edith, who took the news in her stride and pledged to keep it quiet. That promise lasted all of twenty minutes. Edith called her husband Clarence Bowles, Domingo’s stepfather, who then delivered a response the actor has clearly carried with him ever since.

Domingo recounted: ‘Twenty minutes later, the phone rings and she says, ‘I talked to your stepfather’. She puts him on and he says, in his blue-collar masculine way, ‘You’re a good boy and there’s nothing you can tell me that would make me stop loving you’.’

Both Edith and Clarence Bowles passed away in 2006, and Domingo has described their deaths as having a profound effect on how he lives today.

Living Without Apology

‘Now I live without apology. What I feel is what I feel. What I say is what I say. How I love is how I love,’ Domingo said, reflecting on the lasting impact of those early moments of acceptance.

The actor, who has three siblings — older siblings Derek and Averie, and younger sibling Philip Bowles — has spoken candidly about how his family’s response shaped his sense of self. This comes amid growing visibility of LGBTQ+ narratives in mainstream entertainment, with Domingo himself among Hollywood’s most prominent openly gay actors.

Domingo’s Career and the Michael Role

On screen, Domingo recently portrayed Joe Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic Michael. Despite the patriarch’s widely documented reputation for being harsh and demanding towards his children, Domingo has said he deliberately avoided casting Joe Jackson as a one-dimensional villain, instead seeking the complexity behind the figure. The film has kept Domingo firmly in the awards conversation, building on his Oscar-nominated performance in Rustin.

His candour about his personal journey, now shared in Men’s Health UK, adds another dimension to a career defined by emotional depth both on and off the screen.