LeAnn Rimes’ husband Dean Sheremet has been outed as gay by a woman claiming to be his cousin, “Pebbles,” who called into a radio station. The rumor that Sheremet is gay has been circulating since he started dating Rimes, and JayBird wondered if Rimes was hinting that this was an open secret in her strangely worded statement denying the affair but saying that things aren’t blank and white.

Mojo in the Morning spoke to a series of callers claiming that they knew Dean Sheremet and that he was gay. A woman named Pebbles called in to claim that she’s his first cousin and that he’s gay. She couldn’t cite a specific example, like Dean having a boyfriend, and just said the ’stuff he did when he was a kid’ made him seem like a gay person. She claimed that he didn’t care about the alleged affair. It didn’t sound convincing, and I’m not buying it. You can listen to the whole asine breakfast radio blather if you want. Pebbles is the first caller in part one.

LeAnn Rimes rep has treated the Pebbles call with the contempt it deserves.

Rimes’s rep’s response? “Although Dean and LeAnn never knew they had a cousin named Pebbles, they are glad to hear that she has come out of the woodwork,” he says. “Dean and LeAnn are also interested in connecting with their other long lost family members: Fred, Wilma, Barney and Bamm-Bamm. So Pebbles, please let us know if you have spoken to them, too.”

Us Weekly

LeAnn married Dean when she was 19 and in 2007 talked about wanting to have children with him. The rumors of homosexuality were around then too, but little came of them. While Dean might have been confused about his sexuality, I think a more likely scenario in this saga is that they were married young and weren’t ready for a lifelong commitment. Or perhaps it’s an even simpler explanation: marriages are hard work and plenty of them fail, whether you get married at 19 or 29 or 39.

LeAnn Rimes and Dean Sheremet are shown at the Brentwood Farmers Market on 2/22/09. Credit: Fame Pictures