Jonathan Bennett reflects on his fears of coming out in Hollywood after playing Mean Girls heartthrob Aaron Samuels

Jonathan Bennett has admitted he deeply feared losing his fanbase before coming out publicly as gay in Hollywood.

The Mean Girls actor, who famously played high school heartthrob Aaron Samuels in the 2004 movie alongside Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert, appeared to be a straight Hollywood hunk in the early noughties.

Teen girls adored him, as did grown women, but Jonathan worried this might not be the case after he came out in 2017.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail ahead of the return of Hallmark’s Finding Mr ChristmasJonathan, 44, reflected on the joy of revealing his authentic self to the world.

He also shared that in doing so, the most unexpected thing happened.

‘For me, I was afraid that my fans were going to revolt because I was Aaron Samuels,’ he said. ‘I was the hunk from Mean Girls.

‘So, it’s like, well, if all these girls that are my fans find out that I’m gay, they’re not going to watch my movies or like me anymore.

‘And the funny part is, the exact opposite happened when I came out: 99.9 percent were so excited to celebrate me.

‘They were so excited to support me. And all of a sudden, in that moment I became the millennial gay best friend to every girl in America.’

On top of worrying about what the world might think, Jonathan pointed out that the early 2000s was a very different time.

In 2004, same-sex marriage was only legal in the state of Massachusetts and it would be another 11 years before it would be recognized in all 50 states.

While attitudes towards the LGBT+ community were shifting, there was still huge a huge strides to be made.

Jonathan reflected: ‘I think there always will be just a little bit of fear coming out in Hollywood.

‘When I started my career, when I did Mean Girls, I was 22 years old, 23 years old, and I wasn’t publicly out. My friends and family and close group of friends knew, but not everyone knew.

‘It was a different time in Hollywood. It was like, “hey, if you want to be a leading man, you can’t be gay.” Like, that doesn’t exist, right? It was the early 2000s.’

Attitudes towards LGBT+ people began changing for the better over time thanks to trailblazers such as RuPaul, who created RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Ryan Murphy, who was the brains behind shows like Glee and Pose.

‘All of a sudden, culture shifted and it’s like, no, you can be a leading man and completely live your authentic self boldly and proudly,’ he continued.

‘But then you have this weird group of actors like me who was like, who were in the closet.

‘We weren’t allowed to be out and then all of a sudden they’re like, okay, you can be out now. And we’re like, you told us we couldn’t be gay and now you say we can?

‘So, then you have to almost have a second coming out as an adult, saying like, “hey, I’m proud and I’m not going to not talk about who I am because it’s important for kids and people growing up to see good role models.”‘

Since coming out, Jonathan has become a prominent LGBT+ advocate and proudly uses his social media platform to showcase representation.

On Instagram, he often shares hilarious videos of him and his husband Jaymes Vaughan. The couple married in 2022 after six years of dating.

‘We kiss on social media not because we need to see another friggin’ picture of us kissing, but we kiss so that the young Jaymes and Jonathan who are growing up, who didn’t have people to show what real love looks like… or what your life could look like as a gay man.

‘We didn’t have that when we were younger, so we kiss and post our relationship on social media not because we like, look at what we did with the dog, but it’s because there might be some kid in college watching, being like, oh, okay, I can be that too.’

As he prepares to reprise his hosting duties on Hallmark’s Finding Mr Christmas, a competition show which sees 10 men battle it out for a lead role a Hallmark Christmas film, Jonathan advises actors – and everyone – to be their authentic selves.

‘If you’re authentically yourself, if you’re loud, you’re obnoxious, you have a lot of energy like me, like you can just be that,’ he said.

‘And when people see that, then they connect with you as a human. And when they connect with you as a human, you build fans.

‘The more true and unapologetic you are, the more people connect with you because they see the humanity in you and they relate to that.’

Jonathan is set to return to the small screen on October 27 when Finding Mr Christmas season two debuts.

‘I am so excited to be back for season two,’ he said. ‘Finding Mr. Christmas is Hallmark’s search for the next Christmas movie star. So we take 10 hot hunks, we put them in one house, and they compete in different acting challenges alongside some of the biggest stars of Hallmark.

‘One by one, they get eliminated and then the guy that’s left standing gets crowned Mr. Christmas, and he gets to have a lead role in a Hallmark Christmas movie.’

‘I think the show is so great for a lot of reasons, but one, it’s made for the Hallmark Christmas movie lover,’ he added.

‘This show saves Christmas. It’s everything you want around the holidays. Hot guys in flannels doing cute stuff. Honestly, it’s so much fun to watch.’