Jesse Tyler Ferguson has confessed he was caught by police after attempting to steal a porn magazine during his teen years.
The Modern Family star, 49, admitted he was aged 14 or 15 and was trying to explore his sexuality when the unfortunate incident took place.
Speaking to Mel Giedroyc on her podcast Where There’s a Will There’s a Wake, Jesse explained: ‘I was caught stealing pornography when I was very young. Not very young, but like early teens.’
As host Mel joked: ‘Top shelf? Top shelf,’ Jesse confirmed: ‘Yeah it was pretty good porn.’
Revealing he stole the publication by stuffing it under his shirt he confessed: ‘I think I was 14, 15…..
‘But I do feel bad about it, but I want everyone to be clear before I go into heaven that it wasn’t because I was… I didn’t want to be a criminal.
Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson has revealed he was caught by the police trying to steal a porn magazine while exploring his sexuality as a teenager
The Modern Family star, 49, explained: ‘ I was caught stealing pornography when I was very young. Not very young, but like early teens’ (pictured alongside his co-star Eric Stonestreet)
‘I just felt like at that time in my life, you weren’t giving me a lot of the choices. There was not a lot available to me to explore my sexuality. I had to do what I needed to do.’
Yet Jesse’s quest to explore his sexuality didn’t quite go to plan as Mel asked: ‘Who caught you?’
‘The police,’ confirmed Jesse, ‘Well, first the metal detector. Yeah, they put what f*****g sensors inside the magazines. At least they did back then… The metal detector went off.’
Mel added: ‘Oh, so the metal detector went off. It was under your shirt.
Jesse joked: ‘That almost killed me alone. I almost died then. Because I had a heart attack knowing I had porn under my shirt and the metal detector was going off.
‘They’re like, do you have something in your bag? And I had to tell them, no, I have porn under my shirt.
‘They called the police, they were making an example out of me. Isn’t that awful?’
Jesse is now married to his husband Justin Mikita and the couple are parents to two sons, Berkett, four, and Sullivan, two.
Jesse is now married to his husband Justin Mikita and the couple are parents to two sons, Berkett, four, and Sullivan, two
Back in 2021 Jesse opened up about navigating fatherhood as he joked he was raising Beckett ‘gay until he decides to be straight’
The pair met in 2010 at Equinox in West Hollywood and went on to wed in Manhattan in 2013 with playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner officiating at the ceremony.
Back in 2021 Jesse opened up about navigating fatherhood as he joked he was raising Beckett ‘gay until he decides to be straight’.
Appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres show, she asked if their son Beckett enjoyed any particular music and Jesse was quick to respond that there weren’t too many options in the car.
‘It’s a lot of show tunes, because that’s what I like. So, you know, we’re raising him gay until he decides to be straight,’ he joked.
‘On the way back from the hospital, we played Britney Spears,’ Jesse explained, as an homage to his husband’s unwavering devotion to the popstar. ‘That was his first exposure to music.’
Meanwhile on Sunday night Jesse’s Modern Family co-star Aubrey Anderson-Emmons came out as bisexual.
Aubrey, who played Lily, the adoptive daughter of Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse), took to TikTok to reveal the news.
Aubrey, who played Lily, the adoptive daughter of Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse), took to TikTok to reveal the news
She did so in a rather humorous fashion, using the audio from a Season 4 episode of Modern Family called The Future Dunphys, where a young Lily claims she’s gay.
The actress shared a video of her lip-syncing to the scene where she declares, ‘No I’m not, I’m gay! I’m gay!’ after Gloria (Sofia Vergara) insists she’s Vietnamese.
Aubrey captioned the video, ‘People keep joking so much abt me being being gay when I literally am (I’m bi).’
She captioned the Sunday night post, ‘hehe happy pride month and to all a good night,’ with the hashtags #modernfamily #lily #pridemonth #pride #fyp #bi.
