Neil Patrick Harris says he didn't come out in 2006 out of fear. He says he did it because he was tired of watching David Burtka duck around photographers at premieres while he posed alone out front.
However, online audiences aren't completely convinced, and the pushback has turned into a sharper question: can a celebrity claim the moral high ground over 2000s tabloid cruelty when his own record includes plenty of the same?
Harris told the Great Company with Jamie Laing podcast that he and Burtka were together well before How I Met Your Mother, and that the whole cast knew. Even so, he deliberately kept this detail of his life out of the public eye.
At premieres, Harris walked the carpet solo while Burtka went around the photographers on the other side. Harris now admits that wasn't a neutral choice, saying the setup risked making Burtka feel like he was 'skulking behind' him. Letting his partner disappear from photos while he portrayed himself as an eligible bachelor sent a message of its own. It suggested that Burtka was something to be managed rather than someone to be seen with.
Perez Hilton's 'Witch Hunt' and the Outing Culture of 2006
The arrangement held until gossip blogs started treating closeted speculation as a way to increase traffic. Readers were encouraged to send in tips guessing which actors were secretly gay, and Harris ended up in the crosshairs.
The situation escalated when a misquoted statement from his publicist denying his sexuality circulated online, coming across as evasive rather than reassuring. Harris says this was when he realised that remaining silent wasn't protecting anyone anymore.
He never explicitly named Perez Hilton, but Hilton's campaign to expose closeted celebrities was one of the most infamous of that time. Hilton later claimed credit for Harris's announcement, arguing that it demonstrated he had instigated genuine change.
In July, Hilton stated on the Hang Out With Sean Hannity podcast that he now regards the entire situation as a 'witch hunt.' He also mentioned that he had personally apologised to Harris, Britney Spears, and Khloé Kardashian.
Past Controversies Continue Haunting Patrick Harris
Social media hasn't been kind to Harris's framing. Users keep bringing up 2011, when he and Burtka hosted a Halloween party with a meat platter styled to look like Amy Winehouse's corpse. The platter even included a card reading 'The Corpse of Amy Winehouse,' just three months after her death.
Others point to 2018, when Harris mocked Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom on Twitter as 'the woman in the top hat,' despite having met her several times and despite her husband having written for How I Met Your Mother.
Sincere apologies to @Racheldoesstuff for my Tony tweet. I failed to research her before pressing ‘send’, and what I thought was a funny comment in our living room must have been far from funny to read, backstage, mid show. As a performer and a parent, I should have know better.
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) June 13, 2018
Add in the time he posted a UPS Store address online asking fans to send him birthday gifts before quietly deleting it and calling it a joke, and the picture gets a lot messier than a simple tale of romantic chivalry.
An Unforgiving Audience in 2026
In 2006, Harris was prepared for a scandal but received what he describes as indifference instead. However, that's not the case in 2026. Nowadays, audiences no longer accept celebrity narratives at face value, whether it's Perez Hilton seeking forgiveness or Neil Patrick Harris trying to portray his forced coming out as an act of pure chivalry.
The internet doesn't forget, and right now it's holding both men to account for the culture they helped build.
