Gillian Anderson comes out as pansexual, recalls early relationships with women
Gillian Anderson comes out as pansexual, recalls early relationships with women
Marina WattsWed, September 16, 2026 at 5:09 PM UTC
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Gillian AndersonCredit: John Phillips/GettyKey Points -
Gillian Anderson revealed that she identifies as pansexual in a new interview with The Australian.
Weeks prior, she told The Sunday Times that she had a relationship with an “older girl” while she was in high school.
The actress recently released More, the follow-up to her collection of anonymous sexual fantasy essays Want.
Gillian Anderson is opening up about her sexuality.
The Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasmastar revealed that she identifies as pansexual in a new interview and mentioned that she had “relationships with women” in her “younger years.”
She told The Australianin a profile published on Sept. 10 that now at 58 years old, she thrives on her “agency” and a sense of “empowerment.”
“I wouldn’t have said that if you’d asked me: did I feel this earlier in life?” she said. “Even though it may have seemed like I’ve always felt it because I’ve been so front-footed in my career. [But now] it’s different. It feels different.”
Gillian AndersonCredit: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage
When it comes to Anderson’s romantic habits now, however, she admitted that she’s “not a big flirter.” “I don’t put it out there very much. [But] I do hear of a lot of women around our age who are rediscovering their sensuality and their desire for sex.”
“It certainly sounds like they’re in the dating field. That they’re having a lot of fun, a lot of opportunities, but also being approached on these apps by much younger men,” continued the Sex Educationstar, adding, “which I think is quite a surprise for older women to experience.”
The two-time Emmy winner attributed her sex-positive attitude and her anonymous sexual fantasy essay collections books— Wantand More — to her Sex Education character Jean Milburn, a sex therapist.
“It all came from that character. The conversation about doing these books wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for that. I wouldn’t have started my drinks had it not been for that,” she said.
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Anderson praised the “courage” who made themselves vulnerable and sharing their fantasies for her essay collections “extraordinary.” Submissions included a widow who contemplates “whether desire can survive grief.” The actress called it “beautifully human.”
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Weeks before her Australian profile, Anderson mentioned that one of her first relationships was “with an older girl in high school,” when speaking with The Sunday Times in August.
Though it wasn’t her first relationship, “it felt secretive and illicit and wrong, and we had to hide,” she said. “Later on, I had a boyfriend who found out and broke up with me.”
As for whether she identified as gay then, Anderson said she didn’t since she’d had a couple of boyfriends. “But I definitely felt I didn’t have the language for it. Even later on, when I had other relationships [with women], I’m not sure I ever thought of them as being potentially for ever.”
Gillian AndersonCredit: Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic
Anderson was previously married to Clyde Klotz from 1994 to 1997 and they share daughter Piper. She was then married to Julian Ozanne from 2004 to 2006. The actress is also mother to sons Oscar and Felix, whom she shares with ex Mark Griffiths.
She is currently in a relationship with The Crownshowrunner Peter Morgan. Morgan “happens to be male, but I think I would feel the same way if it were a woman,” she told The Sunday Times of her partner since 2016 with a brief break in 2020.
“I’d feel, ‘This is my life partner.’ When I was younger, there were parts of my brain that thought [women] were temporary.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
