Nickelodeon star Maia Reficco says Lucy Hale was her ‘gay awakening’
Maia Reffico credits Lucy Hale as her ‘gay awakening’ (Getty Images)
Actress Maia Reficco has revealed Pretty Little Liars icon Lucy Hale was her “gay awakening”, explaining: “I am not straight.”
Speaking to Zach Sang, alongside Fernando Lindez, whom she stars opposite in new Prime Video movie The Last Sunrise, conversation turned to Pretty Little Liars, the 2022 HBO spin-off of the 2010 to 2017 original.
She said: “PLL, we tackled everything, all of it. That show, we went through so many subject matters. But I love that show, I could talk about that show forever. That was crazy. I love the girls, all five of us.”
Earlier in the chat, Sang had said to Reficco and Lindez: “You’re both straight, both very straight.” With Reficco quickly firing back: “I am not straight.”
Reficco, who appeared in Nickelodeon Latin America series Kally’s Mashup as a teenager, went on to say: “Lucy Hale was my gay awakening.”
Lucy Hale starred in the original Pretty Little Liars as Aria Montgomery, one of the lead cast.
Reficco continued: “I was like, ‘I probably sound so creepy, because all I talk about is Lucy Hale being my gay awakening.’
“But yeah, she was. I loved her. Her and Miley. Miley was also a big one.
“Like, why do I have so many posters of this girl? Maybe I’m just gay.”
She laughed: “Truly, thank you for your service.”
Is Lucy Hale queer?
Hale, who has played queer roles previously, told The Advocate in 2021, while speaking of her Ragdoll character’s sexuality: “I always view it as character and I’ve never really talked about my personal life and what my sexuality is. I prefer not to talk about that because I like to keep my life very private.
“But I think that Edmunds, the character, sort of represents a generation. They talk about sexuality in a way that I really admire – that you can be fluid and you can be attracted to people as people. And that’s always been my mindset. I just like human beings.”
While Hale hasn’t outright labelled her identity, it hasn’t stopped her showing up for the LGBTQ+ community.
In 2017, she made her stance on transgender rights very clear. She posted a photo on X, captioned: “To all the people speaking against the transgender community… This is all I have to say.”
In the photo, she could be seen holding a cake with the words “bye betch” iced on top.
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