Former professional basketball player Andrew “AJ” Ogilvy has publicly come out as gay.
Ogilvy, 37 — who played for the National Basketball League’s Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings — sat down with fellow Australian athlete Isaac Humphries and reflected on his career from 2020 to 2022.
“I was very lucky with my career. I got to travel the world and get paid to play basketball, which is, you know, such a privilege. [But] I probably didn’t live my life as authentically as I probably could have during my time, especially in the NBL,” he explained in a YouTube video shared by the league on Wednesday, January 21.
Ogilvy shared that’s been married to his husband — whom he met while playing in Sydney, Australia — for 18 months. When Humphries asked whether he kept his husband “separate” from his professional life, Ogilvy replied, “While I was in Sydney, I probably kept it separate, but I also wasn’t, I guess, super discreet about it.”
“Some of the guys probably knew. Nothing was, I guess, ever explicitly said, especially at your level of, you know, openness,” he continued. “While I was in Wollongong, definitely more of the guys got to know him. A couple of the guys, my old teammates, were at the wedding. There was, I guess, a level of recognition and knowledge around it, but just not openness.”
When asked whether he ever considered coming out earlier, Ogilvy explained that he initially planned on keeping his sexuality private.
“I think part of it was I viewed it as just my business, but the world shifted probably in between our generations. Like when the marriage equality vote rolled around, I was very vocal about that while still not publicly saying, ‘I’m a gay man,’” he explained.
Ogilvy recalled when Humphries previously opened up about his sexuality, which he said was inspirational to him.
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“A bunch of my friends started sending me the video, [and were like,] ‘Hey, did you see this about Isaac?’ It was just such a huge moment, not just in the NBL, but in basketball and really across the world,” Ogilvy shared. “[It] was hugely beneficial to have someone of your stature and attitude be able to step forward and proudly say, ‘This is who you are.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ogilvy got candid about struggling with his personal and professional lives.
“I think for a long time it was, ‘I want to be a basketballer, [and] to be a basketballer I had to be this — I have to present as straight. I have to not show this side of my personality,’” he said.
He continued, “So I had two social media accounts. One that I’d use for basketball stuff, and one that I just had tight friends on where I could be more open, I guess. Growing up, it wasn’t just in basketball; it was like media as a whole — it just wasn’t positive portrayals of gay relationships growing up. It was more, ‘It’s going to be a sad life, a lonely life.’ [It] definitely weighed on me pretty heavily.”
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