The year was 2006, and Matt Dallas was living every young actor's dream as the star of "Kyle XY".

Behind the scenes though, he was living a nightmare that too many gay actors know all too well.
"I was told to stay in the closet, not talk about my sexuality, to be on every red carpet with a girl on my arm - because you could not be successful if you were openly gay in the entertainment industry, at least in front of the camera,"

Matt revealed years later.

Then gossip blogger Perez Hilton outed him, and Matt's team put him on Howard Stern to deny it.

"Dude, that was just the worst day of my life. I woke up - it was 3 a.m. - to do this interview. I was so unprepared to go on Howard Stern... It wasn't even a minute or two, and the whole interview became about it. Fifteen minutes of you being asked how many women you'd slept with. It was brutal."

He spent that entire day hiding under a blanket.

But here's where the story gets beautiful: In 2013, Matt said forget Hollywood's rules and came out in the most effortlessly cool way possible - just a simple tweet announcing his engagement to Blue Hamilton.
Now he's married, a proud dad, getting ripped at 42, and living authentically.

Sometimes the best revenge is just being genuinely happy.