Freedom (Image by Nicola Formichetti for V)

Sam Smith is opening up, and who better to open up to than Sarah Jessica Parker?! That's when you know you've made it as a gay man in entertainment, when V hires SJP to pump you.

In the interview, Smith talks about the ups and downs of fame, and of having to endure media spankings when he said or did things people misconstrued:

I’m just figuring out what it means to be gay. When I made that first album, I was 19. I had never been in a relationship. I didn’t have any gay friends. Now, I have gay friends, and it’s changed my life. I was not aware that with fame, people really start to pay attention to what you say about everything. I wasn’t wised up enough. I’m too honest sometimes. I was just so shocked at how unforgiving the media can be sometimes ... Also, I don’t have a lot to go by as a gay man in music: Even the George Michaels and Elton Johns weren’t out at the beginning of their careers.

True.

He also, interestingly, talks about his journey as a gay man:

Oh, completely. In the past few years, I became a gay man properly. When I wrote that first album, I was in love with a straight man, he didn’t love me back, and I was very comfortable in my longing. With this record, I became a gay man. I started having proper relationships with men. Sometimes they were in the wrong and treated me in a bad way, and sometimes I was in the wrong.

And don't miss him alluding to his relationship with Brandon Flynn of 13 Reasons Why, and its positive impact on his work:

On a personal level, I’m in a relationship right now and for the first time, I think I deserve to be happy. I’m actually asking myself if I’m going to be writing some happy love songs soon. Also, I’m really proud because, even with this whole dreaded second album thing the industry makes everyone concentrate on, I’m putting out a second album that couldn’t be more me—and it couldn’t be gayer. I’m so proud of that. I’m excited to be singing songs like “Him” in parts of the world that maybe aren’t as open in terms of sexuality. To be that raw in front of people is daunting and scary, but the high is incredible.

More at V.