Renee Zellweger was upset with gay rumors about ex Kenny Chesney

“That made me sad. It made me sad that somehow people were using that as a way to be cruel and calling someone gay as a pejorative, which has fateful consequences.

“Of course, there’s the bigger-picture problem of why anyone had to make up a story at all,” Zellweger said.

The 47-year-old actress and the country singer wed in the US Virgin Islands in May 2005. Four months later, Zellweger filed annulment papers, citing fraud.

In a statement, she later explained that her use of the word “fraud” was “simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny’s character.”

Two years after their marriage was annulled, Chesney opened up about the gay rumors in an interview saying, “We thought the least harmful (stated reason) was fraud because it (is) kind of broad … doesn’t specify. And boy … we were wrong.”