He grew from a Brooklyn kid with a pawn-shop piano into the man whose melodies defined an era. Commercial jingles paid his rent; “Mandy” and “Copacabana” turned him into an icon. Yet even as “Fanilows” screamed his name, he went home to a truth the world wasn’t allowed to see. In an industry terrified of difference, he chose silence to protect the music and the people he loved.

Privately, he built a life with Garry Kief, the man he met in 1978 and quietly married in 2014. For nearly 40 years, they shared a home, raised Garry’s daughter, and steered a legendary career together, all behind a carefully closed curtain. When he finally came out at 73, nothing collapsed. The fans stayed. The music stayed. What changed was him: a man no longer split in two, finally allowed to let his greatest love story stand in the light.