You all know Clay Aiken: the stringy boy with spiky hair and glasses, the perfect anti-star with a heavenly voice. A contestant in the second season of American Idol, Clay Aiken is the one who left Simon Cowell speechless. Well, at least for a few seconds.

Born in North Carolina, Clay Aiken sang in boy choirs, school choirs, church choirs, musicals and local theatre productions, joining a band, “Just By Chance”, after finishing high-school. This accounts not only for his innate talent, but sheds some light on the deep voice coming from the boy no one expected could carry a tune.

At first filling an application for The Amazing Race, he was convinced by a friend to apply for American Idol instead. And the rest is history: he became a singing sensation, the It factor of that year. His record sales exceeded those of Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, the winners of Idol’s first season, beating the odds as he wasn’t the winner of his season. His success is easily demonstrated by the eight tours he made, which were received with raw enthusiasm by his fans.

Due to his head-first dive in showbiz, his look has suffered transformations along the way. At the end of Idol’s fifth season, he made a guest appearance, which was surprising on many levels. His look was so different that many failed to recognize him straight away: his dark hair had grown longer and bangs fell negligently on his forehead. Finally, people said, he now looks like a rockstar!

Recently, Clay Aiken (29) and his producer friend, Jaymes Foster had a baby together. They are neither married nor dating, but their wish to have and raise a child surpassed society’s standards and expectations. Their son, Parker Foster Aiken, was born in August 2008.

Many have questioned Clay Aiken’s heterosexuality, especially since the star has successfully and gracefully avoided answering direct questions about his sexual orientation. He considers it to be nobody’s business and thinks these types of questions are rude and far too inquisitive, as he told Diane Sawyer when she crossed the line of appropriate questions. And anyway, as Aiken says, people will always believe what they want to believe, reports Reuters.

Despite Aiken’s fierce protection of his privacy, he has recently decided to “come out of the closet”, on the cover of People magazine, cover shown of famous celebrity gossip website, perezhilton.com. He motivated his decision by his determination to raise a child without lies surrounding him, as the caption under the photo reads.

If the cover of the magazine is indeed accurate, we applaud Aiken for his courage and childcare ethics. If it is just another perezhilton.com photo manipulation, we can surely expect a livid, yet justified reaction for the American Idol superstar.