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Jason Schanne is the partner of Bruno Tonioli, Dancing With The Stars judge. After season 14 of DWTS, Tonioli reportedly had a commitment ceremony with Schanne and stars including Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek, and Perez Hilton were in attendance.
Tonioli says that growing up in a Catholic household, his sexuality was never talked about. In an interview with The Mirror he said that guys were always hanging around the house and he never had a girlfriend, so his parents had to have known. He also said that he battled a lot of bullies growing up. One story he revealed was:
It was frightening. I really WAS the only gay in the village. I was labelled ‘the queenie guy’ and ‘the queer’, which was the worst thing you could be told in Italy in those days. I always danced very well, so the great-looking girls would dance around me. One night a bunch of lads got jealous about this. They shouted, ‘You poofter!’ and chased me from the club with a broken bottle, then pinned me up against a wall. I eventually chatted myself out of it with wit and imagination – but I was very lucky.
In November 2005, Tonioli was with a man named Paul, who he reportedly had been with for a couple decades, but he said that they didn’t sleep in the same bed during their relationship, explaining:
I always sleep on my own. I can’t sleep with somebody else. Always separate bedrooms, bathrooms and closets. I’m very individual and I want my own space.
Tonioli is quite the character, but isn’t that why we all love him so much?