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Topics: Sex and Relationships, Celebrity, Joe Jonas, Entertainment
Madison Burgess
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Celebrity, Joe Jonas, Entertainment
Nick Jonas has opened up on the public scrutiny into his personal life as a teen - including the wildly inappropriate questions he was asked and why he wore a purity ring.
The American pop singer, 33, shot to fame at a young age alongside his two brothers, Joe, 36, and Kevin, 37, as part of the Jonas Brothers.
Both their musical work and Disney connections threw them into the spotlight, making them household names before the age of 18.
When they began working on their first studio album, Kevin was 17, Joe was 15 and Nick was just 12 years old.
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As we know, a lot of intense scrutiny comes with being in the public eye, and this is a lot for any celebrity to manage, let alone literal teenagers.
Speaking up about that difficult time in a new interview with Esquire, Nick said: "We were so young, and some of the things people were talking about - I'm thankful to say we've come such a long way in 15 to 16 years where it would be completely inappropriate to speak about a 13 or 14-year-old's dating life or sex life."
He added: "It was something that was really synonymous with our name and our image for a while, whether we wanted it or not.
"When you're part of public life, it's part of what I'd like to say is the 'tax' you have to pay. I'm grateful that, for the most part, we're pretty well-adjusted. We all are - considering some of the things we had to sort of navigate."
The band were also quizzed about the purity rings they sported during the height of their Disney fame - for those unfamiliar, these were symbols of their pledge to remain celibate until marriage.
Nick explained that this was 'pretty much customary' in the church system as a born-again Christian, however, as to be expected, not everyone ends up sticking it to it.
The brothers also opened up on a particularly traumatic moment which took place during iHeartRadio's annual Jingle Ball festival in New York, when a reporter asked about the rings.
Nick said: "Meanwhile, I'm 14 or 15, Joe's 16, Kevin's 17 or 18. Quite young, to my point before this, to be asking us about that. Also, [it's] none of your f**king business.
"These are the things we could never say then, which now, being adults, we can look at that and know that was, in the moment, inherently uncomfortable and wrong."
During an episode of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke back in 2019, the trio reflected on when they first got the rings and what they actually meant.
Joe explained: "When you’re like 12 and you do that, because we grew up in a church and our dad was a pastor, so it kind of just came natural for everyone we grew up with to go through this, and get one, and say ‘I’m gonna wait for the right person.’"
However, he admitted the meaning changed for him when he got a bit older, adding: "When you’re about 15, 16, and start dating, and you go: ‘Wait a minute. What did I say I was gonna do?’"