Two weeks ago on Showtime's Queer as Folk, Ben and Michael were married in Canada. However, Ben's portrayer, Robert Gant, says he's flying solo off screen, despite lingering chatter that he and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Kyan Douglas are coupled up. "That's a real compliment that I get, that we're boyfriends," the 36-year-old actor tells TV Guide Online. "Kyan and I are just good friends."
For a while, the twosome were more than pals, though. "We've gone out on some dates," he recalls. "We met on the set of the Vanity Fair shoot for their [December 2003] cover story on gay TV. They actually stuck us together in that photo!"
Ah! So it was destiny. "It was destiny that we be friends," Gant corrects us, chuckling. "Kyan's a great guy. His current boyfriend [civil-rights activist] Greg Durham is a great guy, too."
Meanwhile, QAF's hunkiest leading man says he's "very open" to finding a meaningful relationship of his own. "I've had plenty of boyfriends in my life," he says thoughtfully. "I'm not so much looking for a boyfriend now. I'm much more interested in finding a partner, but you can't script those things they way they do in TV land."
Even so, the sexy singleton can hardly say he has no interested takers. In fact, he regularly receives mail from male fans from all around the world. "I've gotten more than my fair share of insane letters," Gant laughs. "I get a lot of very, um, complimentary comments about my body. I also get propositions ranging from the very short term to the long term — from 'Let's hook up' to 'Let's get married' and everything in between. Much of the mail I can't understand, because it's in a foreign language. I get a lot of e-mails in Spanish from Latin countries. I'll see amor in there, but I don't understand much else!
"The craziest thing I had was an anonymous admirer sending a dozen red roses to my home," he adds. "I think people have an idealized image of who I am as a result of who my character, Ben, is. Add into the mix that sometimes we don't wear much clothing on screen, and you get some strong reactions!"
Truth be told, Gant enjoys the flattering fan attention. "For the most part," he shrugs, "it's all harmless and it comes from a good place."