Ricky Martin

Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), better known by his stage name Ricky Martin, is a Grammy Award and Latin Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican pop singer who rose to fame, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991. He has sold more than 55 million albums around the world, charting 21 top-ten hits on the U.S. Latin Charts, ten of which reached number one, and a total of over 30 hit singles.Martin has been nominated one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine and its sister magazine People en Español in 2000 and 2006 respectively.

During the Livin' la Vida Loca era, Martin's personal life went under the microscope due to his large gay following and he was constantly questioned about his sexual orientation. Neither avoiding the questions nor answering that he is straight stopped the gay rumors. In the magazine Plus 7 Days he said: "I am a modern man, live a full life, do not feel any barriers inside myself," Ricky says. "I perceive the contemporary world as an open forum, where nothing is taboo except criminal activity. If I were gay, why not admit it? ... I am a normal man. I love women and sex. I am a real hot-blooded Puerto Rican, but I have never been attracted by sex with a man.".

In The Sunday Express on the gay rumors Martin said: "What are you going to do? I don't have a problem with homosexuality. I'm gay-friendly – I'm not gay." (Found at: RMTEE - Press Center, Archived Articles,Press articles 1999 (archive before 07-2001)

On August 20, 2008, Ricky announced, via his publicist, that he is now the father of twin boys. The babies were delivered via gestational surrogacy and were already a few weeks old. At the time of the press release, the children were already under Ricky's full-time care. On December 10, 2008, Martin told People magazine that the boys are named Valentino and Matteo. Martin's rep released a statement after the twins' birth, saying, "Ricky is elated to begin this new chapter in his life as a parent and will be spending the remainder of the year out of the public spotlight in order to spend time with his children."