25 celebrities you didn’t know are gay, bisexual or lesbian
Some celebrities come out publicly as LGBTQ+ to big fanfare, but others may have been out for years or may have come out quietly. PinkNews brings you a list of 56 iconic stars who, even if they personally avoid labels, are still LGBTQ+ role models. Take a look through some of the celebrities that you might not know are lesbian , gay or bisexual .
Mick Jagger
David Bowie’s ex-wife Angie has claimed that Jagger and the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ singer had more than just a close friendship.
Angie says she found the pair in bed together at their home, and a backup singer who lived with the Bowies also said that “Mick and David were really sexually obsessed with each other.”
Kate McKinnon
The Ghostbusters star was the first out lesbian member of the Saturday Night Live cast. She says that she realised she was a lesbian after watching Gillian Anderson as Scully on the The X-Files.
“I figured it out by watching The X-Files and by noticing my physiological reaction to it,” she said.
“I thought at first my physiological reaction was a product of David Duchovny’s face but no, it was Gillian Anderson-who still is the queen of my heart. So I knew then.”
Gillian Anderson
As well as helping Kate McKinnon to realise her own sexual orientation, The X-Files star Gillian Anderson has also had relationships with women.
Back in 2014, years after revealing she had relationships with women, the Sex Education actress said she owed it to a late female partner not to keep their relationship a secret.
Marilyn Monroe
Despite marrying Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller and rumoured affairs with John F. Kennedy , Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, Monroe was also rumoured to have had relationships with women.
According to reports published after her death, Monroe’s feud with Joan Crawford started after a one-night stand and that she had a four-year relationship with Natasha Lytess, living “as man and wife” before her marriage to DiMaggio.
Miley Cyrus
‘Flowers’ singer Miley Cyrus came out publicly as pansexual back in 2015, and later confirmed she is gender-neutral.
The daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus first achieved fame as Disney Channel character Hannah Montana, but took a more singular path with her 2013 turning-point album Bangerz.
Lindsay Lohan
The Mean Girls star had a tumultuous relationship with DJ Samantha Ronson between 2008 and 2009, when the couple were often spotted together in public.
After previously saying she did not want to “classify” her sexuality, she told Piers Morgan in 2013 that she still identifies as straight even after relationships with women, saying: “I know I’m straight. I have made out with girls before, and I had a relationship with a girl. But I think I needed to experience that and I think I was looking for something different.”
Mara Wilson
The Matilda star came out publicly back in 2016 in the wake of the Orlando Pulse massacre.
“I *used* to identify as mostly straight. I’ve embraced the Bi/Queer label lately,” said Wilson at the time.
She more recently called for more boring representation of bisexual people in film and television.
Daniel Newman
The Walking Dead star Daniel Newman, who played Daniel in the hit series, came out publicly as gay in an emotional reveal in early 2017.
In a touching YouTube video, he said a chance meeting with a girl at a homeless youth centre he was volunteering at had changed his mind about hiding his sexuality.
The actor, who has also appeared in The Vampire Diaries and Homeland said the girl had thanked him profusely for helping the LGBTQ+ community.
After he had questioned why she was thanking him, she said: “Because you’re straight.” That was the moment he said he knew he had to come out.
Noah Schnapp
Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp came out publicly in January 2023.
The actor, who plays gay high school student Will Byers on the hit Netflix sci-fi series, shared his sexuality in a viral lipsync video that he shared with the caption: “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”
Tom Hardy
Speaking in an interview in 2010, Hardy confirmed that he had been with men as well as women.
“As a boy? Of course I have. I’m an actor for f**k’s sake,” he said.
“I’ve played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I’m in my thirties, it doesn’t do it for me.
“I’m done experimenting but there’s plenty of stuff in a relationship with another man, especially gay men, that I need in my life.”
Cara Delevingne
The Paper Towns actor and model has had high-profile relationships with women.
In July 2017 she said she doesn’t like being “pigeonholed” by people who insist on labelling her gay.
The Suicide Squad star has also been open about her battle with depression, with a view to opening up a dialogue on the subject.
Aubrey Plaza
The White Lotus star Aubrey Plaza came out as bisexual back in 2016.
The actor, who played April Ludgate in Parks and Recreation, has said that she “falls in love with girls and guys”.
Her former Parks and Recreation co-star Natalie Morales came out as queer in July 2017.
Ben Whishaw
London Spy star Ben Whishaw has been out as gay for some time. In 2016, he said he thought that keeping his sexuality a secret had a negative effect on his career.
“I’m not damaged,” Ben Whishaw told the Guardian. “Not more than anybody else.”
The actor, who played Q in four three James Bond films, later said he was “baffled” that there is even a debate around gay actors and whether they should come out.
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish came out publicly in Variety’s November 2023 cover story, with the “Bad Guy” hitmaker confirming that she is “physically attracted” to women.
The singer later told a Variety red carpet reporter that she doesn’t “believe” in the concept of coming out, stating: “I just don’t really believe in it. I’m just like, ‘Why can’t we just exist?’ I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I just didn’t talk about it. Whoops.
“But I saw the article and I was like, ‘Oh I guess I came out today.’ Okay, cool. It’s exciting to me because I guess people didn’t know. But it’s cool that they know. I am for the girls.”
Madonna
Madonna has always been one of the most sexually-liberated figures in music, and has been romantically linked to several women over the years, including comedian Sandra Bernhard in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, model Jenny Shimizu has claimed she was “sex slave” and in a relationship with Madonna for years.
Writing in her memoir, Shimizu said she had been with Madonna for years, even when the press reported rumoured links between the Queen of Pop and men.
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has spoken publicly about her bisexuality for a long time.
Speaking to Jane magazine, the readers of which said she was the most attractive star, she said: “They’re right to think that about me because I’m the person most likely to sleep with my female fans. I genuinely love other women. And I think they know that.”
Back in 2014, Jolie, then married to Brad Pitt, announced her support for their ten-year-old to self-identify as male.
The former couple were criticised in 2012 after they wed, despite previously promising they would remain unmarried until marriage equality was realised across the US.
Michael Stipe
REM frontman Stipe opened up publicly in the 1990s about having relationships with men, before describing himself as queer in the early noughties.
In 2011, the year the band split, Stipe went on to say he was “80 percent gay”. He later said that he had been reluctant to get tested for HIV in the 1980s, during the height of the AIDS crisis, during the fear around the virus.
Hugh Hefner
The late Playboy mogul was rumoured to have been with men despite his penchant for women at the Playboy mansion, according to the biography Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream.
“Hefner’s thirst for sexual experience became so strong that he even had a one-time homosexual experience,” wrote author Steven Watts. “One evening in downtown Chicago he was propositioned and, according to [Hefner’s friend Eldon] Sellers, he ‘thought, what the hell’. Found it an interesting experience.”
Kesha
Kesha came out publicly as bisexual in 2013, and has since officiated at two same-sex weddings.
Speaking to Attitude in 2019, the ‘TiK ToK’ singer said: “I never hid [my bisexuality] from anybody. I never had a moment of feeling I had to come out about it.
“It was always there. I think I had a conversation with a gay magazine in the US and they just asked me, ‘Oh, are you bisexual?’ and I was like, ‘Obviously!’”
Drew Barrymore
The Santa Clarita Diet star came out as bisexual in 2003. She has been married three times, to Jeremy Thomas, Tom Green and Will Kopelman.
She told Contact Music: “Do I like women sexually? Yeah, I do. Totally. I have always considered myself bisexual.”
Anna Paquin
The True Blood and X-Men star has been out publicly as bisexual since 2010. In 2012, she said bisexuality is “just part of who I am”.
After coming out, Paquin said she was proud to be a happily married bisexual mother, and said that her bisexuality really hadn’t been a secret.
Cynthia Nixon
Sex and the City actor Nixon was in a relationship with teacher Danny Mozes from 1988-2003, with whom she shares one child, who she revealed in 2018 is transgender.
She began dating education activist Christine Marinoni in 2004, with the couple marrying in 2012.
The star caused controversy shortly before her marriage, when she claimed her sexuality was a choice.
While Sex and the City’s Miranda was portrayed as straight during the series’ initial TV run and first two films, the show’s 2021 revival series And Just Like That… saw the character come to a new understanding regarding her sexuality after beginning a romance with non-binary YouTuber Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez).
Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez is best known for her on-again-off-again relationship with Justin Bieber, but was rumoured to be dating supermodel Cara Delevingne during a break with Bieber in 2014.
Gomez described the model as “very open” and said she made her “very open” herself. Asked whether she had questioned her sexuality, she said: “Oh, I think everybody does, no matter who they are. I do, yeah, of course. Absolutely. I think it’s healthy to gain a perspective on who you are deep down, question yourself and challenge yourself; it’s important to do that.”
Wanda Sykes
Comedian and actor Wanda Sykes came out publicly as a lesbian at a Prop 8 marriage equality rally back in 2008, shortly after marrying her wife, Alex Niedbalski.
She later said she never meant to come out, but that once she did she was “treated like a unicorn”.
Wentworth Miller
Prison Break star Wentworth Miller came out publicly as gay back in 2013 when he declined to attend a Russian film festival over the country’s introduction of its infamous anti-gay ‘propaganda’ law.
He has since used his prominence to speak out about his mental health issues and self-harm stemming from troubles with his sexuality.
Miller hit back at a follower who said he is not a “real man” back in 2016, and later starred in a powerful PSA about mental health issues.
