Ricky Martin: I told world I'm gay because of my kids

When Ricky Martin announced in an e-mail blast last March that he was gay, the Latin pop star says he was so relieved, "I just started crying like a little baby. I started crying," he tells Oprah Winfrey in an interview segment released Monday promoting his appearance on her show Tuesday afternoon.

"I couldn't take it anymore," he says of being closeted. "It was too painful. But I guess the most important thing is my children" - 2-year-old twin sons, Valentino and Matteo, born via a surrogate. "When I was holding them in my arms, I was like, what am I gonna teach them - how to lie? . . . And I said, 'Hold on a second.' Before I decided to become a father, I [had] already accepted who I was and I was happy with who I was. Then, when I was I was holding my children, I said, 'OK, it's time to tell the world.' "

Martin, who is promoting his memoir, "Me," is scheduled to appear on "The View" Wednesday and make a bookstore appearance at the Columbus Circle Borders in Manhattan that same day.