Celeb Stylist Chris Appleton Was Dad to Two Before Coming Out at 26

The HuffPost reports that Chris Appleton, 41-year-old celebrity hairstylist who works with the likes of Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, thought he had it "all figured out" in his early 20s when he and his long-term partner with whom he welcomed two children.

"Speaking on Bethenny Frankel's podcast, "Just B," Appleton explained that while he and the mother of his children never married, they were together for nine years before he realized that he is gay."

Appleton grew up in Leicester, England, the middle child of five siblings. He struggled in school due to dyslexia and was bullied for appearing queer. "The local hair salon, where he started working at around 13 years old, became his refuge," wrote the website Bustle in a profile last year. "There, he met Katie Katon, his former partner, with whom he had his two children: Billy, who was born when Appleton was 19, and Kitty-blu, who followed two years later. (Appleton didn't come out as gay until he was 26.) Appleton says he immersed himself first in being a young, hands-on dad, and then, when his kids were a little older, he started venturing into London for work."

"I was bullied quite a bit at school, and people used to say I was gay because I did hair," Chris went on. "I never was too focused on sexuality, but people at school always mentioned it, and, as a kid, you just don't ever want to be different – I already felt different because I was dyslexic."

"I was, I guess, just determined to prove everyone wrong, but so much that I did myself a disjustice [sic]," he admitted. "It wasn't until I experienced it at 26 that I was also going through it as well as everyone else. The difficult thing is, then you're hurting people around you that you've committed to, and you feel that."

"People feel like they know you, and you feel like you know them, and all of a sudden you're telling a different story which you're trying to figure out," Chris added. "So it was really hard for a few years, it was really difficult."

Bethany praised him for realizing that  "something massive was missing" from his life and deciding to make the "courageous jump" by coming out.

"It sounds cheesy, but there's honestly so much power in living authentically and being authentically yourself," Chris acknowledged. "I think once I let go of all the guilt and shame of it all, my whole life changed. I moved to America, it was amazing how much grew and changed."

Appleton went on to say he is on good terms with his ex, and got tearful when he recalled his watching a video of his first video shoot at which she was present.

"I rang her because she was there, and she was like: 'Oh my god, I remember that photo shoot, I remember going through 10,000 pictures, and it was just incredibly stressful,'" Chris recalled. "And she's like: 'Why are you emotional?' I was like: 'I don't know, I just remember him, I remember that guy.'"

"Like, I was straight; I had two kids; I thought I had it all figured out," he went on. "And she's like: 'You know, it was really hard because I think you had to mourn a part of someone that you had to let go.' She was incredibly supportive of what I felt. I was told as a kid that gay was wrong, and gay men... You know, it's not a good thing. It doesn't fit into the box."

He went on to discuss his two children, 21-year old Billy and 20-year old Kitty, who grew up with his mother in Leicester, England before coming to the United States. ""[Billy and Kitty] moved to LA two years ago, and they've been having a great time," Appleton told Frankel. "Kitty's doing social media stuff now, and Billy's at college, and they're living their best lives. As a dad, I'm so proud that I can just give them opportunities and give them the opportunity to see the world."

But acknowledged he spent the first half of his life unsure of his identity. " "I didn't see myself for 26 years. 26 years of my life, I didn't see myself – I didn't let myself see myself. And it wasn't until someone said to me: 'You're allowed to see yourself, you're allowed to be that person, you don't have to feel guilty,' my whole life literally changed. And I never want to be back in those chains."

In an earlier interview for Gay Times in 2019, conducted by Kim Kardashian West, his most famous client and friend, he was asked why it took so long for him to come out. "Some people know straight away, I didn't and it took me a minute to understand that and accept that and then come out. Everybody has got their stories and some people are ready with it straight away, I just wasn't. I didn't have that realisation. It was also really important to me that the kids were comfortable before I expressed that, and that they understood and were in a good place. It was just time. Everybody has their story and mine was later on."

Check out these pics from Appleton's IG: