Nicki MInaj has responded to Lil Nas X after he revealed that he hid that he was a fan of hers to keep his sexuality a secret.

The 37-year-old Starships hitmaker took to Twitter to reply to the 21-year-old Old Town Road rapper about his recent admission.

Nicki admitted that it was a little disappointing at first when he wasn’t open about being one of her fans whom she affectionately refers to as The Barbz.

She wrote: ‘It was a bit of a sting when you denied being a barb, but I understand. [ribbon emoji] Congratulations on building up your confidence to speak your truth. @LilNasX.’

Nas was quick to respond to his idol and  no doubt he was sad to have upset her as he shared an image of Spongebob Squarepants character Squidward crying.

He responded: ‘the generous queen, i love u. and i’m sorry i did that in a time where u were already getting so much bandwagon hate. i felt so bad, hoping u wouldn’t see my denial.

‘i was just so afraid of people finding out about me and losing everything before i even got a chance.’

The day before, Lil Nas X admitted to running an anonymous Minaj fan account as he reached out to the Super Bass artist to collaborate on a track.

The young rapper has long been speculated to be the mind behind the now-shuttered account @nasmaraj, although he never admitted it.

He responded to a tweet from Minaj, writing: ‘i have this song i want u on and was wondering….’

It was accompanied with a meme of an emoji and an engagement ring, which read: ‘I am proposing.’

When one of his 4.8million Twitter followers asked why he never admitted to running the account, he responded: ‘i didn’t want people to know i was gay tbh.’

Another fan argued that being a Nicki fan doesn’t make him gay, to which he replied: ‘it don’t but people will assume if you had an entire fan page dedicated to nicki u are gay. and the rap/music industry ain’t exactly built or accepting of gay men yet.’

It comes almost a year after Lil Nas came out as gay on Twitter, which proved to be a trailblazing moment for hip hop.

He posted on June 30 (the final day of Pride Month): ‘some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure.’

The Panini artist was praised for choosing to publicly come out at the height of his career, whereas many celebs hide their sexual orientation at risk of losing work.

Lil Nas X’s star has continued to rise, as he appeared Tuesday alongside Jane Fonda in Gucci’s environmentally-conscious Off the Grid campaign.