Patti LaBelle Explains Why Luther Vandross Never Came Out of the Closet: ‘He Didn’t Want to Upset the World’ [Video]

Patti LaBelle stopped by Bravo’s ‘Watch What Happens Live’ and casually spilled all of Luther Vandross’ personal tea.

Now, it’s not like we didn’t know Luther Vandross was gay — but he never confirmed it himself.

Andy Cohen asked Patti how fellow guest Sam Smith compares to the late Luther Vandross and she gave a very respectful answer:

“There are voices in this world and once they sing it’s a stamp on everybody. Luther did that and he’s done it,” said Patti.

Then, Andy got a little messy while discussing how Luther and Patti came to be friends and slipped in the following question:

 “Did [Luther] struggle with the idea of coming out publicly? Was that something that you talked about at all?”

“We talked about it,” said Patti. “Basically, he did not want his mother to be…although she might have known, but he wasn’t going to come out and say this to the world. And he had a lot of lady fans and he told me he just didn’t want to upset the world.”

And there it is. It’s a shame Luther passed before he was able to live his life as freely as he may have wanted to.

Get into the clip below.