As LGBTQ+ representation in media becomes more common, some celebrities have pushed back against the expectation that they have to define their sexuality.
“I don’t feel like it’s something I’ve ever felt like I have to explain about myself,” Harry Styles said of his sexuality in a 2017 interview with The Sun. “It’s weird for me — everyone should just be who they want to be. It’s tough to justify somebody having to answer to someone else about stuff like that.”
Other stars like Demi Lovato have embraced pansexuality for its inclusive nature. “I’m so fluid now, and a part of the reason why I am so fluid is because I was, like, super closeted off,” the “Cool for the Summer” singer said during a March 2021 appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, adding that they were attracted to men, women and “anything” in between.
Lovato came out as nonbinary during a May 2021 episode of their podcast. After initially announcing a switch to them/them pronouns, the Sonny With a Chance alum later updated their pronouns to include she/her again. During an August 2022 appearance on the “Spout” podcast, the Disney Channel alum said the choice was made due to “feeling more feminine.”
The Grammy nominee elaborated on the change during a June 2023 interview with GQ Spain. “I constantly had to educate people and explain why I identified with those pronouns,” they explained. “It was absolutely exhausting. And that is one of the reasons that led me to also feel comfortable with the feminine pronoun. I just got tired.”
Cara Delevingne, meanwhile — whose exes include Jake Bugg and Ashley Benson — has settled on the pansexual label as well. “I always will remain, I think, pansexual,” the Paper Towns actress told Variety in 2020. “However one defines themselves, whether it’s ‘they’ or ‘he’ or ‘she,’ I fall in love with the person—and that’s that. I’m attracted to the person.”
Meanwhile, other celebrities like Lily-Rose Depp think you shouldn’t have to choose any label at all. After the model posed for a photo series of people who aren’t “100 percent straight” in 2015, she rejected the notion that she had come out.
“That was really misconstrued, that whole thing,” the Dancer actress, then 16, told Nylon in 2016. “A lot of people took it as me coming out, but that’s not what I was trying to do. I was literally doing it just to say that you don’t have to label your sexuality.”
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Scroll through for a list of stars who prefer not to define their sexuality:
