
 
 Barry Manilow is opening up about his husband, Garry Kief, for the first time ever on camera. 
 
 During an exclusive sit-down interview with ET, the 73-year-old music legend reflects on marrying his manager and longtime partner, and how the two kept their relationship from the public for nearly 40 years. 
 
 "I have not read one negative response," Manilow tells ET's Cameron Mathison of the reaction he's received from fans ever since news broke in 2015 that he had secretly tied the knot with Kief. "These strangers out there, and I've always known it, they care about me." 
 
 "I don't know, maybe they care about everybody, but for me, it is so moving, it is so deep that these strangers were so happy that I was happy," he continues. "That I wasn't alone, that I had somebody that was with me that I loved and that we'd been together for 37 years. We're in great shape, and I was very grateful for that response." 
 
 
 
 RELATED: Barry Manilow Secretly Marries Manager Garry Kief 
 
 
 
 He reveals, however, that he never had plans to make his marriage to Kief public. 
 
 "This is my life, we've been together for all these years," explains Manilow, who was previously married to Susan Deixler from 1964 to 1965. "Everybody knows that we're a team. Everybody that I know knows. So it never really dawned on me to say anything about it. I mean, I'm a very private guy." 
 
 "I don't even like people knowing the names of my dogs, so for the public to get that close was really very… it was strange that we were even talking about it," he adds. "But I don't mind at all. I'm proud of it, I am. I'm proud of it." 
 
 Back in April 2015, Manilow's close pal, Suzanne Somers, confirmed that he had secretly wed Kief when she was a guest onWatch What Happens Live. "They're married and really happy, and I was there when it was announced," she said at the time. "I think it's freeing for him. He's extremely private, extremely. He's an awesome person, they're both awesome people, they're my dearest friends." 
 
 Following that interview, Manilow received "unanimous" positive support from all his fans, which he found quite surprising. 
 
 "It was just an amazing, beautiful, beautiful thing," he says. 
 
 
 
 WATCH: Barry Manilow Gives Surprise Performance at Pre-GRAMMYs Party 
 
 
 
 Also amazing is the fact that he and his partner's relationship has remained strong for nearly four decades, a rare achievement for Hollywood couples, and something even Manilow admits probably shouldn't have worked out. 
 
 "And we're business partners," he adds. "This shouldn't work, but it did, and I couldn't be more grateful." 
 
 So, what's the secret to a long-lasting relationship in Hollywood? Manilow jokes it all comes down to using "separate bathrooms." 
 
 "It's all about respect," he says. 
 
 Manilow's new album, This Is My Town: Songs of New York, is due out April 21. The album, which the crooner has been working on for over a year, includes 10 new studio recordings -- featuring several of Manilow's original musical compositions -- and classic standards, all inspired by the Empire State. 
 
 After the release of his new album, the New York native will then be hitting the road for a limited series of concerts, beginning with a show in Durant, Oklahoma, in May, in support of the album (check out the full list of dates and cities HERE). 
 
 And while it's easy to think life on the road may be full of fun adventures and wild stories, Manilow tells ET that after spending years touring, "glamour is the last word" he'd ever use to describe it. 
 
 "It's always work. It's a full-time job for me, and I love it, but I'm not home," he explains. "And sometimes those tours, in the beginning, [they] lasted months at a time. Now we've scaled back, we have scaled back and we don't go out for that long." 
 
 "I'll be making music until I croak," he jokes. 
 
 
 
 WATCH: Suzanne Somers Confirms Barry Manilow's Marriage 
 
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 Pop legend Barry Manilow opens up for the first time about coming out, finding love, and surviving showbiz for 50 years. Subscribe now for his exclusive untold story — only in PEOPLE. 
 
 For decades Barry Manilow gave the world timeless hits, while keeping his own world a total secret. Now at 73 years old, the music legend is opening up about his life, struggles and, for the first time, his sexuality. 
 
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 Martin Schoeller 
 
 Fiercely private, the pop icon recently welcomed PEOPLE into his Palm Springs home for an exclusive interview and photo shoot with his manager husband Garry Kief — and talked for the first time about their nearly 40-year romance. Says Manilow, “I’m so private. I always have been.” 
 
 Born Barry Alan Pincus in 1943 and raised by his single mother Edna Manilow, in Brooklyn, Manilow knew early on his first love was music. His second love was his high school sweetheart Susan Deixler. “I was in love with Susan,” says Manilow of the woman he married after graduating high school, “I just was not ready for marriage.” The star maintains he wasn’t struggling with his sexuality at the time of their one-year matrimony. “I was out making music every night, sowing my wild oats — I was too young. I wasn’t ready to settle down.” 
 
 Indeed, Manilow’s personal life took a backseat as he pursued a career in music, writing jingles to pay the bills (State Farm, Band-Aid and others still use them today) and in 1971, taking a gig arranging music for and accompanying a young Bette Midler at the gay hotspot the Continental Baths. He produced the diva’s first two albums and when her career took off, his followed suit. 
 
 After skyrocketing to fame in 1974 with his pop-rock ballad “Mandy,” the Brooklyn native’s star only got brighter with the release of classics like “Looks Like We Made It,” “Copacabana (At the Copa)” and “Can’t Smile Without You.” Then in 1978, he met Kief — a TV executive and Houston native — and “I knew that this was it,” says Manilow. “I was one of the lucky ones. I was pretty lonely before that.” 
 
 Soon after, Kief became Manilow’s manager, a role he still holds today, in addition to being President of Barry Manilow Productions. 
 
 “He’s the smartest person I’ve ever met in my life — and a great guy, too,” Manilow says. 
 
 Adds longtime friend Suzanne Somers: “There’s Barry Manilow the performer, and then there’s the Barry ‘machine.’ It takes enormous savvy and know-how to book and market complicated arena tours, choreograph promotion, direct the entire team and make it look effortless, and that part is Garry’s domain. A major career takes two. Between them, there is enormous comfort and trust.” 
 
 Kevin Mazur/WireImage 
 
 Not that it was always easy for the pair. Early on in their relationship, Kief went to a Manilow concert. Afterward, “I got into the car with him, and [the fans] were rocking the car,” Manilow recalls. “He was like, ‘I can’t handle this. It’s not for me.’ I’m glad he stayed.” 
 
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 And the couple has stayed together for 39 years, all while remaining mum on his sexuality — an open secret to some in his long-devoted, mostly female fan base, a shock to others — and even stepping out and living with once-rumored love interest Linda Allen during his relationship with Kief. 
 
 Manilow,who will release his new album This Is My Town: Songs of New York on April 21, admits he’s always been hesitant to discuss the relationship — and to come out publicly, even after he finally married Kief in a clandestine ceremony at their 53-acre Palm Springs estate in April 2014. 
 
 For more on Barry Manilow’s life, love and legacy, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday. 
 
 In 2015, news of their marriage and Manilow’s sexuality made headlines, something the legend calls “a blessing and a curse.” 
 
 Considering his fans, “I thought I would be disappointing them if they knew I was gay. So I never did anything,” says Manilow. Turns out, “When they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy. The reaction was so beautiful — strangers commenting, ‘Great for you!’ I’m just so grateful for it.”
– Barry Manilow is gay. If you're thinking, "Wait, I already knew this," you're not exactly wrong; rumors have swirled for years, and his secret 2014 wedding to longtime manager Garry Kief was reported the following year. But the singer never officially came out to fans—until now. In a new interview with People, Manilow, 73, says that the moment he met Kief back in 1978, "I knew that this was it." During the ensuing 39 years, their relationship has been an "open secret" to some fans, while others have been in the dark the whole time, People notes. Manilow even went so far as to live with rumored love interest Linda Allen at one point during those years. "I thought I would be disappointing [fans] if they knew I was gay. So I never did anything," Manilow explains. But in reality, "When they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy. The reaction was so beautiful—strangers commenting, 'Great for you!' I’m just so grateful for it." In a corresponding interview with Entertainment Tonight, Manilow adds that since everyone in his life knew about his relationship, "It never really dawned on me to say anything about it. I mean, I'm a very private guy. I don't even like people knowing the names of my dogs." Sample Twitter reaction to the news? "Is anyone else relieved like I am that Barry Manilow is trending on Twitter because he came out and not because he died?"