Being that the members of Pentatonix are all about bringing Christmas joy to the masses every holiday season, it's easy to forget that they've all faced a variety of struggles in their personal lives.
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00:00Being that the members of Pentatonix are all about bringing Christmas joy to the masses
00:04every holiday season, it's easy to forget that they've all faced a variety of struggles
00:08in their personal lives. Along with his friend and fellow Pentatonix member Mitch Grassi,
00:13baritone Scott Hoying is openly gay.
00:15How excited are you to marry the man of your dreams, Scott?
00:18Excited. I'm so excited."
00:19He's been happily married to his life partner,
00:21model Mark Manio, since July 2023, and the couple shared exciting news in November 2024
00:27when they announced they are getting closer to finding a surrogate mother and having a baby.
00:31While he's since grown to be more publicly open about his sexuality, Hoying strived to
00:35keep it hidden for the group to be able to gain traction in the industry in the early
00:38stages of their career. He told The Dallas Voice,
00:41"...I was essentially back in the closet again after working so hard to come out of it."
00:45Considering how his place in the LGBTQ community is such an important aspect of who he is,
00:49it must have been difficult for Hoying to perform while suppressing
00:52such a crucial element of his identity. Thankfully,
00:55he's totally open about who he is now, and will never have to suppress his true self ever again.
01:01Similar to his friend and bandmate Scott, tenor Mitch Grassi faced his own struggles
01:05revealing his sexual identity when he was younger. In Grassi's case, this was due to
01:09being raised in a small-town conservative environment defined by traditional values.
01:13Though it was imaginably difficult for Grassi to truly be himself in his youth,
01:16the temperature in his community has positively adjusted. He told Bringin' It Backwards in 2021,
01:21"...it's kind of progressing now. I'm happy to see progress after living away for so long."
01:25He's also come into his own over the years and has let his identity flow into his music.
01:30He told The Dallas Voice,
01:31"...I suppose it plays a huge role in my music since it's a big part of who I am.
01:35I will always write from a queer point of view unless I write from a character point of view."
01:39Between his highly-celebrated beatboxing, cello-playing skills, and his fluency in Mandarin,
01:44Pentatonix beatboxer Kevin Olushola has proven he's a multifaceted,
01:48greatly talented individual. However, that doesn't mean his success came easily.
01:52In a June 2020 Facebook Reel, Olushola discussed his struggles working as a person of color,
01:57citing his parents' issues moving to the United States and their determination to
02:00give him and his siblings better lives. He said,
02:02"...opportunity is not the same or on equal footing if you look like us."
02:07To both be seen as normal and bring his aspirations to life, Olushola said he had
02:11to work extra hard and frequently put himself out there, despite facing criticism from his
02:16peers for doing so. Every Pentatonix fan should know that bass Matt Salih entered
02:20the group as the replacement for Avi Kaplan, who left in 2017. With his initiation,
02:25Salih marked the first new member to join the group since it formed. In light of Kaplan's
02:29departure, Salih was imaginably faced with a great deal of pressure replacing a founding
02:33and fan-favorite member of the band. Though some Reddit users acknowledged the disappointment
02:37toward Kaplan leaving, some fans gave Salih a fighting chance as a new member. One user said,
02:42"...I know everyone misses Avi, and I definitely miss him too,
02:45but I think people need to remember that he still has music out."
02:48Another wrote,
02:48"...saying that the group is worse off without him is not only insulting to Matt,
02:52who is an incredibly talented musician, but it is insulting to Avi,
02:55and saying that his reason for leaving the group isn't valid."
02:58Considering the group's continued success over the years, it seems Salih has fit perfectly
03:02into Pentatonix's dynamic, despite any objections he might have faced when he first joined.
03:07Before she married Ben Hausdorff on April 21, 2024, Kirsten Maldonado had previously
03:12been engaged to Jeremy Michael Lewis. In May 2016, Lewis proposed to her in Paris
03:17in front of the Eiffel Tower. Maldonado described the proposal as surprising and well-planned.
03:21She told People,
03:22"...I was just so shocked because it was so out of the blue and wonderful. I was so happy.
03:26There were no words."
03:27However, things didn't stay wonderful for too much longer. The couple postponed their wedding
03:32in 2017, citing undisclosed relationship problems. Per an unnamed source that spoke
03:36with Radar Online, the wedding had been planned to take place in December 2017. The source said,
03:41"...invites did not go out yet. They are staying together to work on separate issues."
03:45Obviously, things ultimately didn't work out, since Maldonado is now married to Hausdorff.
03:49While we don't know the details about how everything fell apart,
03:52it goes without saying that it must have been a terrible experience for her.