Will Young on dating apps, fame, and fostering: ‘I probably missed out on opportunities because I was openly gay’

As I step into a bustling Dalston studio on a sunny summer morning, the inconspicuous building off Kingsland High Street belies the creative whirlwind inside, where crew members buzz about with purposeful energy.

Today, Will Young is filming the music video for his single, ‘Light It Up’, a track from his new album of the same name, and I’ve been granted a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse to see how the magic happens.

I’m taken into Will’s dressing room, where I find him perched in front of a mirror, surrounded by an array of brushes and hair products, while he discusses with his makeup artist the difficulties of sanding paint off walls. “Have you ever renovated a house, Dale?” he asks. Will, it turns out, has recently purchased a fixer-upper in rural Wiltshire. As the makeup artist works away, the three of us chat about the joys and challenges of home renovation.

Makeup done, the singer removes his trousers as he prepares to put on his outfit for the day. I tactfully turn my gaze to the floor, and spot the Vivienne Westwood shoes he’s just stepped out of. We immediately bond over our mutual love of the late fashion icon and her wares. “I used to live near her house in Clapham,” Will tells me, explaining how he’d sit outside the local deli with Vivienne’s husband Andreas Kronthaler drinking beer. Though keen to continue this thread of discussion, I feel it’s best to let him finish changing in private.

Elsewhere on set, I take the opportunity to chat with the two dancers who’ll be starring alongside Will in the video. Both middle-aged women, one of them only got the part 48 hours ago, and she gushes over her admiration of Will for platforming performers like her who may well be overlooked elsewhere. “We just rehearsed yesterday after I found out the night before I was doing this,” she tells me, full of enthusiasm for the day ahead.

Will emerges and shooting begins, and I watch as he effortlessly nails take after take, with his dancers doing the same. Of course, after more than two decades in the spotlight, he has around 30 music videos under his belt. And this experience displays itself in Will’s easy manner as he jokes with the crew, offers encouragement to the dancers, and generally embodies an air of calm professionalism that keeps the entire set running smoothly.

But it’s during the breaks between takes that I find myself most drawn to him. As he steps outside for a cigarette, as a fellow smoker I duly follow. We stand in the alley behind the studio, two middle-aged gay men still indulging in an increasingly unfashionable habit, and I feel an unexpected kinship with this pop icon. He offers me a light and asks me about myself and my life, in a reversal of roles that’s often missing in a journalist’s encounters with similarly famous figures.

It’s this same openness and authenticity that I encounter a few weeks later when we meet again for a more in-depth interview. This time, we’re at Jamie Laing’s studio in Marylebone, where Will has just finished recording a podcast. The setting might be different, but Will’s down-to-earth demeanour remains the same as he greets me with a beaming smile, offers me a hug, and compliments me on my shoes (Westwood, of course).

As I set myself up, Will dashes out to grab a quick snack from Tesco and when he returns, protein bar and copy of Country Life in hand, he settles into his chair with a contented sigh. Over the next hour, we delve into his career, his new album, and his thoughts on everything from politics to personal happiness.

At 45, Will exudes a quiet confidence. As we dive straight into our chat, I’m struck by how at ease he seems, both with himself and his place in the world. This wasn’t always the case, he admits. “I wouldn’t go for an obvious pop song,” he says, reflecting on his early career. “I think probably from Pop Idol, I really didn’t want to do the obvious thing.”

But with his new album, his first in three years, something has shifted. “Light It Up came along, and I thought, ‘OK, we’re making a pop record,’” Will explains. This newfound comfort with embracing his pop roots seems to stem from a place of hard-won self-assurance. “I think it probably comes from confidence,” Will muses. “I don’t need to second-guess — I’m in my forties.”

Reflecting on his early career, Will touches on his decision to come out shortly after winning Pop Idol. “I don’t think it affected my career. When I came out, I sold twice as many albums, so…” he says with a laugh. He acknowledges there might have been some prejudice, however, in being overlooked for paid promotional projects that always seemed to go to his peers instead. “I probably missed out on opportunities like that, that probably everyone who was doing as well as me was getting. And that might have been because I was openly gay.”

Despite possibly losing out on some financially lucrative deals, Will is adamant he wouldn’t have done things differently. “I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have the first 10 years of my career just pretending. I think that would have been awful.”

This self-assurance permeates his latest album. When I ask about his favourite track on Light It Up, Will doesn’t hesitate. “‘Midnight’ — I loved writing it. I thought it was really interesting, and I’ve never written a song like that,” he says enthusiastically. “I’ve never done a song with that kind of groove, and not that subject matter.”

The song, whose lyrics seem to express the singer’s struggles with feelings of isolation and the futility of seeking comfort and connection, represents a departure for Will in more ways than one. “I think it was a really honest song, and I don’t really write autobiographical songs,” he explains. “That was a bit of a new way of writing, which is quite exciting. So, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m writing a song about being in your forties and about being a gay man and sort of wandering around looking at your reflection.’ It was sort of really honest.”

Will’s honesty isn’t limited to his music. Chatting with the audience during his surprise two-song set at the PEUGEOT Attitude Pride Awards in June, he spoke openly about experiencing gay shame. When I ask him about it, he’s thoughtful in his response. “I was just thinking about it on that day, and I just thought, ‘Well, I might not be the only person in a room of how many hundreds of gay men that’s feeling gay shame at any one moment,’” he explains. “There’ll be someone else sitting there thinking, ‘I’m not looking good enough; I’m not being a good enough gay man; why didn’t I come dressed like that? Why aren’t I more confident?’ The bigger the group, the more it can fester, so I thought I’d say that because I thought it might resonate with someone and just take a bit of it out of the room — if it was in the room.”

It’s this willingness to be vulnerable and speak out that has made Will such a relatable figure in the LGBTQ+ community. When our conversation turns to politics and the current climate for queer people in the UK, his passion for social change is evident.

“Don’t get me started,” he says with a wry laugh when I bring up recent anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from UK politicians. “I mean, what the fuck? You’ve got someone like Suella Braverman talking about flying the Pride flag at the Home Office or going off to America and mentioning LGBT migrants. I don’t want to give her credence, because she’s a bit of a joke.”

On this subject, Will is particularly concerned about the treatment of certain sectors of the community. “For me, I think it’s the hijacking of transgender people — that’s slightly terrifying,” he says, his voice tinged with frustration.

But he remains hopeful for positive change, especially with the recent shift in leadership. “I really hope so,” he says when I ask if he thinks the new government might improve the situation. “I don’t think that Labour have gone far enough for transgender people, though. Obviously, they were so desperate to get in, so they kind of wouldn’t say anything [on transgender issues.]”

Will’s activism, he says, is a responsibility that comes with his platform, with the singer becoming a prominent voice for Labour during the recent General Election campaign. “Yeah, one hundred per cent,” he says when I ask if he feels a duty to use his voice for these issues. “I get why a lot of people don’t go near politics because it scares them,” Will says. But for him, staying silent isn’t an option. “I felt like I was sort of driven to just talk about it because I just couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. It was like I couldn’t be quiet.”

When our conversation turns to deeper topics, Will opens up about his fears and reflections on mortality. “It’s not as bad as it used to be, but I can get a bit scared of death,” he admits candidly. When I probe further about why this might be, Will ponders, “I don’t know if there is an amazing, brilliant, therapeutic answer that I could find through a clinician, but I think it’s probably the unknown. I think it’s almost like a trap. Feeling like will I be trapped in a place and thinking ‘Oh, I don’t like it here, but I can’t go back.’ You know, it’s just so unknown.”

He continues, making light of his opinion, “I also think it’s just a bit outrageous. Like, who can I text? Who can I send a text to going, ‘That’s funny!’ I think it’s really unfair. Life’s really fun — why are you taking that away from me?”

In 2020, Will lost his twin brother Rupert to suicide, following a decades-long battle with alcoholism, which he opened up about in the 2022 TV documentary Will Young: Losing my Twin Rupert. In a podcast interview with Gabby Logan that year, Will said he’d quit drinking completely, though he tells me he’s “not currently” sober. “Sobriety hasn’t been a problem for me,” he explains. “Like, I never had a problem with not drinking. I never planned to not drink; I just sort of stopped smoking and then didn’t want to drink or have coffee either — they’re both associated with smoking. If I had a problem with addiction, that would be the smoking.”

We discuss our mutual experience of always seeming to be the only smoker in the group, and Will admits he’s not proud of his vice. “I would like to stop. If I’m honest, I don’t think it’s very good for my singing voice, and it’s obviously not good for your health. It’s just such a powerful habit. Lots of people have gone to vapes, but maybe I’m just too traditional — I won’t do a vape.”

As our conversation shifts to his personal life, Will beams as he tells me about his recent return to the countryside. “I’ve never really felt like a city boy,” he admits. “I grew up in the countryside, so this feels like coming home in a way.” The move seems to have brought him a sense of peace and contentment that’s palpable as we chat. “I think I was feeling a bit hemmed in in London. I don’t feel that anymore.”

This newfound serenity extends to his thoughts on the future. When I ask where he sees himself in the next 10 years, Will’s answer is surprisingly domestic. “I’m quite interested in fostering,” he reveals. “So, I’ve sort of got that in mind with the house because we’re set up very well for that.”

He’s thoughtful about what he could bring to a child’s life as a foster parent. “I think I’d be very good at being emotionally available and emotionally validating. That’s the key for kids or young people,” Will says. “I’m very good at hearing people and I’m very good at being disciplined but kind, and I think you can do both. So, it’s like offering strong support, but also boundaries. That’s really important.”

As we delve deeper, the conversation turns to dating. In an age where many celebrities shield their romantic lives from public view, Will is refreshingly candid about his experiences in the modern dating world.

“Dating apps are easy,” he admits. “Particularly being in the countryside. Because there’s no gay clubs or bars or anything,” he says with a laugh. “It’s a bit of a lottery. My last boyfriend was off an app. And the person I’m dating at the moment’s off an app, and the one before that. So yeah, it’s been apps all the way.”

There’s a hint of nostalgia in his voice as he reflects on that last statement. “It’s a shame…  I don’t know. Maybe my romantic side misses the sort of ‘you see each other across a room’ kind of thing; but, you know.” He shrugs, a wry smile playing around his mouth. “Maybe those days are gone.”

However, Will’s quick to point out the positive aspects of this new dating landscape. “They’re really interesting people, you know,” he says of his matches. “They’re lots of people that have moved away from London. I think we can all be accused of maybe typecasting those types of people, but that’s not what I’ve found. They’re some amazing people that have done amazing things and they’re continuing to do amazing things — they just don’t want to be in a big city,” Will states, in a statement that reflects his own situation.

I ask Will about happiness and contentment. His response is characteristically thoughtful. “I’d say I’m content. Happiness can fluctuate, but being content and being peaceful is — I mean obviously that can vary as well — I think that’s deeper.”

For Will, true contentment comes from within, it seems. “If you’re striving for happiness, it could be a bit more like little highs,” he explains. “Being content with yourself, I think that’s the number one thing.”

I ask what makes him happy and he pauses, a smile spreading across his face. “I mean, I can think of loads of things that I love doing. Like, I love sitting on a train with a sandwich. I just love it. I mean, I really do. Like, genuinely,” he says laughing (his favourite sandwich is “anything with melted cheese” in case you wondered).

As our interview comes to an end, I’m left with the impression of a man who’s found a sense of peace — with his music, with his place in the world, and most importantly, with himself. Will Young may have started his career as a reality star, but he’s grown into something far more noteworthy: a thoughtful, engaged artist who’s using his voice not just for entertainment, but to spark reflection within the community.

In a world that often demands we present a polished, perfect version of ourselves, Will’s willingness to embrace his complexities — to be unapologetically himself, whether that’s enjoying a Silk Cut, swiping through dating apps, or calling out political injustice — is both refreshing and inspiring. As he continues to ‘light up’ the music scene with his new album, Will Young is illuminating a path for others to follow — one of authenticity, growth, and self-acceptance.

Light It Up is available to buy or stream now by clicking here; the Light It Up tour begins in September.

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This feature appears in issue 360 of Attitude magazine, available to order now or to download alongside 15 years of back issues on the free Attitude app.