The 28-year-old Irish singer angered the gay community when he said:

"Deliberately loving pink, wearing pink underwear, pink socks, pink shirts, pink anything – is wrong.

"If you are not gay, a man should not be wearing pink.

"Saying pink is a form of red is the same as saying homosexual is a form of male."

McFadden also took a punt at his adopted home town of Sydney as a gay city and claimed that in days gone by there was "no such thing as gay".

Gay groups condemned the comments from the ex-Westlife singer - whose former band mate Mark Feehily is gay.

"It's the sort of stuff that gets said every day in the schoolyard. A lot of young people are quite impressionable, and when they see celebrities saying stuff like that, they think it’s OK to say it themselves," said local gay activist, Robert Marshall, coordinator of Rainbow Youth.

McFadden, via a statement from his publicist, told Confidential his pink thinking should not be taken out of context.

"To come to the conclusion that I am homophobic from these sentences is far from the truth," the statement read.

"Some of my friends and colleagues are gay and if I was truly homophobic then I have picked the wrong industry."

Last update: 01-29-2009 18:43