Jason Mraz pleaded with his friends not to vote for him on 'Dancing with the Stars' - because he missed his cat

Speaking to Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his 'Dinner's On Me' podcast, he said: "Two or three weeks in, I realised I'm probably going to be here the whole time, and I'm terrified, and I have to cancel all my plans for the entire rest of the year, and I'm missing my cat terribly.

"I start telling my friends, 'Stop voting for me!' "

At one point, the 47-year-old musician told producers he was "good" and ready to depart the show - but now wonders if he'd put in more effort if he could have beaten eventual winner Xochitl Gomez.

He said: "Having made it all the way to the very end, made it to the buzzer, I look back and laugh and think, 'Well, maybe if I'd actually given a s***.'

"So, I would do it all over again if I could, and I would try really hard."

Elsewhere in the interview, Jason explained he never used to feel comfortable discussing his sexuality because "being gay" was the "punchline of a joke" in the 1990s.

The 'Lucky' hitmaker revealed in 2018 that he previously had sexual experiences with men, including during his relationship with Christina Carano - who he divorced in 2023 after eight years of marriage - and is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Explaining why he didn't come out as a teenager, he said: "In the 90s, being gay was like punchline of a joke and I didn't want to be the punchline of a joke and kept my nose down and figured out ways I could instead get out and see the world one day."

His upbringing in Virginia also played a role, as he was worried about what his loved ones or other people in his "hometown" would think about him.

He said: "I still took with me the conservative street that I grew up on, and that was very hard to ignore or to break out of.

"I was very shy and and scared of what my family would say, or what my hometown would think or just whatever."