Kim Kardashian West’s longtime makeup artist and friend Mario Dedivanovic has come out as gay officially when accepting an award at the American Influencer Awards show.
The makeup artist, 37, whose known as Makeup by Mario, appeared visibly emotional on Monday evening when accepting the Artist Achievement Award from Kim, 39, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California.
‘A couple of days ago, on my mother’s 73rd birthday, I walked home after a day of stressful meetings at work and she was there doing my laundry and I broke down to her crying,’ Mario said during his speech.
Emotional: Makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic, 37, has worked with Kim, 39, for the last 11 years. On Monday, he publicly came out as gay for the first time
Hard moment: His emotional speech happened while attending the American Influencer Awards to accept the Artist Achievement Award
Close friends: The award was presented to Mario by Kim Kardashian West, 39, who has used the makeup artist for the last 11 years and is a longtime friend
‘I told her finally that I had spent my entire life and childhood suppressing my thoughts, suppressing my dreams, my feelings, my creativity and trying to be invisible so that no one would know how I’m feeling inside,’ he continued.
‘I knew that I was born different. I was traumatized to be me. I had been living in fear my entire life. I had been ashamed. She said, “Mario, from this day forward you are never again to live in shame or fear.”‘
Mario comes from an Albanian family, and he confessed to his background preventing him from being honest about his true identity.
He even left home when he was younger to pursue his passion for makeup against his family’s wishes, it was revealed in a clip before Mario was presented the award.
The speech went on where Mario asked people in the crowd and other viewers to be open and accepting of others who were born different.
‘Little boys and girls around the world are growing up with pain and fear like I did, thinking of killing themselves every single day like I did,’ Mario said through tears. ‘Because they are different and they are scared to be themselves, because their culture or their family judged them.’
His speech then ended with Mario officially announcing his sexuality to the world. At this moment, Kim walked over and put her arm around Mario as he broke down in tears over the confession.
Opening up: ‘I knew that I was born different,’ he said during his speech. ‘I was traumatized to be me. I had been living in fear my entire life’
Free: Mario shared the moment on his Instagram page Tuesday that he was finally ‘free’
‘I stand here for the first time in my life a proud 37-year-old gay man…I finally feel that bright light that I’ve been dreaming of my whole life is pouring from my soul around my body and it’s mine. I can now live the life that I deserve and right now I feel true happiness.’
Her friend: ‘He is honestly one of my best friends,’ Kim told the crowd about Mario at the event. ‘We’ve worked together for 11 years, so 11 years of fights’
Little did Mario know, though, his mom was waiting backstage to surprise him following his confession.
Footage shared on Mario’s Instagram page of the coming out speech showed the makeup artist collapse to the floor when he saw his mom waiting backstage to greet him following accepting the award.
Kim also gave a speech during the awards show prior to Mario coming on stage to accept the honor.
‘He is honestly one of my best friends,’ Kim told the crowd at the event.
‘We’ve worked together for 11 years, so 11 years of fights. You guys, we fight like you don’t even understand. We fight like brother and sister. But he’s created some of my most magical memories and really I believe made me who I am today.
‘[He] also really helped with my KKW Beauty Brand. I call him, I FaceTime him at three in the morning, testing formulas, showing him shades and he’s always there no matter what. And I love him.’
Close friends: Mario has been working with Kim for over a decade and the pair have even released a collaborative beauty collection together as part of her KKW Beauty brand
Bond: ‘You guys, we fight like you don’t even understand. We fight like brother and sister,’ Kim, pictured with Mario in March 2018, said of her relationship with the beauty pro
She finished her speech with a look at Mario, imploring him to not ‘make her cry’ before inviting him up on stage to accept his award.
A video was also played before Mario’s speech, and it featured the makeup artist’s sister, brother, mother, and father. All of them confessed to not accepting Mario’s obsession with makeup at first, which encouraged the artist to run away and pursue his passion on his own.
Now 19 years into the industry, Mario said he finally felt ‘free’ by openly stating his sexuality to the world.
Mario started working with Kim 11 years ago, and the pair have been almost inseparable since.
When accepting his award, Mario called Kim is ‘angel’ and ‘muse’, thanking the reality star for helping grow his career in the industry.
The pair has worked together more collaboratively in recent years to develop makeup lines for Kim’s beauty company, KKW Beauty. Their recent collection, KKW x Mario The Artist & Muse, comes out on November 22.