Texas senator Ted Cruz has reacted to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement that he is gay by calling it a “personal decision.”

Speaking on CNBC on Thursday, Cruz was asked about Mr Cook’s piece in Bloomsberg Businessweek, where he said he is “proud to be gay.”

Cruz said: “Those are his personal choices. I’ll tell you, I love my iPhone.”

He then continued: “Listen, Tim Cook makes his personal decisions, and that is his life. My focus is on the constitutional question of who has the authority to make decisions.”

Cruz attempted to introduce a bill to ban recognition of same-sex marriage earlier this year, despite the striking down of the Defence of Marriage Act.

Last month, he was picked as the most popular potential Presidential candidate at the anti-gay Values Voter Summit.