Jesse Tyler Ferguson explains to Oprah Winfrey why he had to come out as gay to his father three times

Jesse Tyler Ferguson had already come out to his father – twice – when one day his dad asked him if he had a girlfriend.

‘He would like conveniently forget,’ the Modern Family star says in tonight’s episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter.

Jesse remembers the last time he had to have the coming out conversation – yet again.

‘He asked me if I had a girlfriend. I was like, “Dad, I’m gay. Do we really go back to this every time?”‘

Looking back, he realizes his dad was going through his own process and ‘having to figure out how to deal with the son that wasn’t the ideal son that he had (in mind).’

‘He had this whole idea of what his son was going to be,’ he adds. ‘He had to reconfigure his thinking. It’s a coming out process for them as well – to his friends and co-workers – to say “I have a gay son.”‘