AceShowbiz - Sanjaya Malakar is staying true to himself. In a new interview, the former "American Idol" finalist opened up about his sexuality and viewers' perception of him during his time on the show's season 6.

Speaking in the Monday, August 22 episode of "The Adam Sank Show" podcast, the 32-year-old former musician, who now works as a pastry chef and bartender, unveiled that he now identifies himself "as bisexual." He said, "At the time [that I was on 'American Idol'], I did not know, which was why it was so weird for me."

The team surrounding Malakar during his "American Idol" stint didn't help the process of figuring out his sexuality. "All of my publicists were like, 'Oh, just tell everyone you're single. Be ambiguous. No one needs to know anything about anything because you don't want to lose your fans,' " he recalled. "And I'm like, 'Okay, but why am I manipulating what I know of myself to figure out what kind of fans I'm going to get because I'm still trying to discover who I am?' "

Malakar, who was "raised by women," feels comfortable and confident in his sexuality today, though he hasn't come out to his parents. He said in the podcast, "For me, at this point, I don't really care about what people know of my sexuality, and if I got into a serious long-term relationship with a guy I would bring him to my family, and they'd be like, 'Oh, cool.' "

"My family's not the kind of people I really need to come out to formally," Malakar, whose dad is from India and grew up in a temple and his mom is an Italian-American woman, further elaborated, noting that it could be difficult to bring home a woman after expressing he also likes men. "A couple of my cousins are bi as well and have brought home gay partners and then come and married someone else. It becomes a big deal, and it's not."

Malakar went on saying, "Unless it's something serious, it's not really their business. I'm not trying to f**k any of them." He later stressed, "I'll come out to people if it's a situation like this, but if I'm not trying to f**k you, it doesn't matter. You'll know if I do."

Malakar also shared that when he was still in school, he was called a f****t by his friends. "[It] was the worst thing that could ever happen to you," he admitted. "You had to be as hyper-masculine as possible to fit in, and coming up in 2007, it was like, 'Being gay is okay, but you have to define yourself, and there's this or that.' "