David Hyde Pierce tells Joy Behar he was outed before ‘Frasier’ even aired “but no one cared.”

David Hyde Pierce guested on The Joy Behar Show this week and he and our favorite red-headed host talked about being outed then coming on later on his own.

Before he began his 11 year run as Niles Crane on Frasier – a role that won him four Emmys – Pierce tells Joy: My partner and I were outed by the tabloids before Frasier even started but no one cared.”

He has been with partner Brian Hargrove for decades and finally publicly confirmed the relationship in 2007. Then, when he won his Tony Award for Curtains, he thanked “my partner, Brian, because it’s 24 years of listening to your damn notes — that’s why I’m up here tonight.”

Of the years in between Pierce says: “We didn’t deny anything, we just said, ‘We’re going to live our lives.’ … But what happened was the whole ‘live and let live started to feel like ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and I didn’t want that. So that’s when I started to be more public.”

Joy asked him about the case of Rupert Everett, the British actor who has several times publicly bemoaned the fact that he came out, a move he said has and continues to cost him roles.

“I think it’s individual,” Pierce said. “How you do it, why you do it, if you do it … I don’t think there are rules. Career-wise, Neil Patrick Harris has been very open and has been very successful in his career and his life.”