Los Angeles - Pop star Clay Aiken, who was the runner-up on American Idol in 2003 and has become one of the show's must successful alumni, has revealed that he is gay, according to People Magazine.

The latest cover of the popular celebrity magazine shows Aiken holding his infant son with the headline "Yes I'm Gay." The magazine hits newsstands Friday.

"I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things," says Aiken, 29, on the cover.

His son was born August 8 to friend Jaymes Foster. Aiken is currently starring on Broadway in the hit play Spamalot and has kept quiet until now on his sexuality, which has long been a topic of speculation and jokes.

"I think for the most part, I really think that people don't care, honestly," he told Access Hollywood earlier this year. "People don't want to have that type of stuff pushed, people who are living in Omaha or in Charlotte or wherever. They don't want stuff like that pushed in their face."