Tears to triumph RYAN'S LIFE IS JUST MAGIC

The presenter has moved on from an embarrassing TV moment to accomplish his family dream

- Fleur Guthrie

It’s not often that Magic Talk’s drive show host Ryan Bridge finds himself lost for words. But when The AM Show fill-in host had just been accidentally outed by co-host Mark Richardson – who joked that Ryan collected “ex-boyfriends” – he knew he only had a few seconds to make a split decision about how to respond on live TV.

“I thought, ‘Well, there’s no getting around that one. People are going to be wondering and I’m going to have to acknowledge it,” says Ryan, recalling how he burst into tears as soon as they went to an ad break.

“I was overwhelmed. It was shock, but also looking back on it, it was relief,” explains the 33-year-old.

“I had been on telly and radio for five years and never once mentioned I was gay. Everyone in the newsroom and all my family knew.

“It’s not that I had hidden it,” he pauses. “Well, I guess I had in a way by not saying it publicly. It’s just not at the forefront of how I describe myself. I wanted to be known as a good interviewer or a talented broadcaster before being the ‘gay guy from TV’.”

Ryan says he’d always worried that if he did come out, people wouldn’t accept him or find him relatable anymore. However, the experience has shown him that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I received the most hilarious emails from listeners and viewers in the weeks afterwards. Bruce from Timaru emailed, ‘Me and me mates love watching you and we don’t care who you’re shagging!’” he laughs.