Former Disney star Raven-Symoné says pressure to maintain her brand forced her to suppress her sexuality

'Even if I got sick I probably would’ve been like, ‘I’m taking this to the grave.’ but that eats at your soul'

Raven-Symone was so desperate to keep her sexuality a secret, she assumed she would fake marriage to a man (Getty Images)

Former Disney star Raven-Symoné has said the pressure to maintain a sellable self-brand forced her to hide her sexuality.

Raven-Symoné, 30, who first appeared on The Cosby Show at the age of three, has said suppressing the fact she was gay for her career stifled her and ate her soul.

Speaking in a recent video series titled It Got Better, the actress and talk show host explained she previously thought she would fake a marriage to a man in order to hide her sexuality.

“My likeness… had 15 people dictating what I should and should not look like,” Raven-Symone explained. “ If I did whatever I want, I’m not gonna sell ’cause it doesn’t go with the brand. I was branded at such a young age.”

“I had the number one show on Disney. I had multiple albums, I'd been on tour with *NSYNC…, I didn't wanna deal with that,” she later goes on to say.

At this point, Raven-Symoné explained there was nothing which could have made her come out. “Even if I got sick I probably would’ve been like, ‘I’m taking this to the grave.’ but that eats at your soul.”

“I never thought I would come out because my personal life didn’t matter, it was only what was supposed to be sold as the ‘Raven-Symoné’ brand.”

Explaining how she formerly planned to marry a man, she said, “I’ll have a husband and I’ll have a friend on the side so I can be happy, so I could have both taken care off".

However, this all changed when she fell in love and decided to come out around the time she went to university. Once out in open, Raven-Symoné felt a huge burden off her shoulders. “I felt lighter. I felt like I could go out and not have to put on 17 different hats to be myself,” she said. “I realise that just living my truth of what I am, there’s one less person to fight me in my own head.”

Raven-Symoné hosted the hit Disney show That’s So Raven in the early noughties and now hosts ABC’s show The View.