Former National Basketball League (NBL) player AJ Ogilvy has publicly come out as gay.
The Australian basketball star, who played for the Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings, shared the news during a recent interview with out gay player Isaac Humphries.
At the start of their sit-down, which was in support of the NBL’s Pride Round event, Ogilvy reflected on his expansive career that ran from 2010 to 2022.
“I was very lucky with my career. I got to travel the world and get paid to play basketball, which is, you know, such a privilege. [But] I probably didn’t live my life as authentically as I probably could have during my time in the NBL,” he explained.
Ogilvy went on to reveal that he’s been married to his husband for 18 months, adding that they met while he was playing in Sydney, Australia.
When Humphries asked Ogilvy if he kept his husband away from the team and his life as a basketball star, the latter revealed: ” While I was in Sydney, I probably kept it separate, but I also wasn’t, I guess, super discreet about it.
“Some of the guys probably knew. Nothing was, I guess, ever explicitly said, especially at your level of, you know, openness. While I was in Wongong, definitely more of the guys got to know him. A couple of the guys, my old teammates, were at the wedding.”
While discussing his coming-out journey, the 37-year-old athlete revealed that he initially planned to keep his sexuality private.
“I think part of it was I viewed it as just my business, but the world shifted probably in between our generations. Like when the marriage equality vote rolled around, I was very vocal about that while still not publicly saying, I’m a gay man,” he continued.
Despite initially planning to keep his sexuality away from the public, Ogilvy went on to say that Humphries’ historic coming-out announcement inspired him to embrace his identity.
“A bunch of my friends started me the video, and were like, ‘Hey, did you see this about Isaac. It was just such a huge moment, not just in the MBL, but basketball and across really the world,” Ogilvy explained.
“[It] was hugely beneficial to have someone of your stature and attitude be able to step forward and proudly say, ‘This is who you are.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, the Sydney-born athlete opened up about the difficult moments he faced while trying to maintain a double life.
“I think for a long time it was, ‘I want to be a basketballer and to be a basketballer I had to be this, I have to present as straight. I have to not show this side of my personality,’” he continued.
“So I had two social media accounts. One that I’d use for basketball stuff, and one that I just had friends on where I could be more open. Growing up, it wasn’t just in basketball; it was like a media as a whole, it just wasn’t positive portrayals of gay relationships. It was more, ‘It’s going to be a sad life, a lonely life.’ [It] definitely weighed on me pretty heavily.”
Towards the end of their sit-down, Ogilvy praised the NBL’s Pride Round as another driving force behind his decision to publicly come out, adding: ” There’s now a place for us to have this conversation, for us to be able to talk as openly as this.”
Check out the pair’s full interview here or below.
