Race Across the World 2024 winner Alfie Watts has been met with a wave of support after publicly coming out as bisexual.
The 23-year-old travel content creator became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC reality series after travelling by land from Japan to Indonesia alongside his partner and schoolfriend, Owen Wood.
Since then, he has become a keen advocate for young people’s mental health and, this year, landed the gig as co-presenter of the Race Across the World spin-off podcast The Detour, alongside celebrity participant Tyler West.
In a recent post, he shared a series of facts that his 335k followers might not know about him. Among various other tidbits, he shared a photo of him sat on a fading rainbow bridge, looking out at an incredible view.
The text over the picture reads: ‘I’m bisexual, and this is the first time I’ve ever said it online, so you probably didn’t know – surprise!’.
Underneath, he added in parentheses: ‘What a terrifying thing to say out loud’. His caption also hinted at his hesitance, where he wrote: Hi, I’m Alfie. This is scary, but let’s do a reintroduction’.
Friends and fans have flocked to the comments to show their support after the soul-bearing statement.
‘Well done mate,’ Scottygb wrote. ‘Mate, incredibly proud,’ Joe Tasked added.
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‘Congratulations, it’s so special that you chose to share this part of yourself the world,’ Lettymchugh shared.
‘You’re absolutely awesome and that’s the most important thing! Congrats on coming out, absolutely brave and very proud,’ Owen Street echoed.
‘I hope that one day our world is such that no one has to be terrified to reveal who they are,’ Carmie_Cann declared.
Other facts he shared in the carousel included being a martial arts pro aged nine, his dream of hosting a travel show and that he can name every capital city in the world.
The global adventurer has been candid about his personal life in recent weeks. Earlier in September, he opened up about no longer talking to his family after their feud ‘boiled over’.
‘Me and my family have never got on. Basically, I cannot resonate with a giving-up attitude. It’s not in me, and they gave up. That really annoyed me, even from an early age,’ he told Matt Willis.
As the years have gone on, the gap between him and his family has grown bigger and bigger, he added.
The reality star isn’t the only BBC icon to come out as bisexual.
Traitors contestant Freddie Fraser hard-launched his relationship with his boyfriend, Bailey, on social media to a swell of support. Since then, he has been open about his journey.
On the Not My Bagg podcast, the 22-year-old reflected on realising he was bisexual: ‘I think it was a gradual thing I realised. I was looking at boys like, do I think they’re good-looking because I want to be them or because I fancy them?’