Gillian Anderson, 58, has revealed that she identifies as pansexual, weeks after disclosing that she had a "secretive" relationship with an "older girl at school" as a teenager.
The X-Files actress, who is said to be in a relationship with The Crown creator Peter Morgan, opened up about her sexuality in a new interview with The Australian.
Pansexuality is a sexual, romantic or emotional attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity.
"In my younger years, I was in relationships with women," Anderson told the publication.
The actress went on to discuss how her sexuality has evolved after hearing about the experiences of other women. "I'm not a big flirter. I don't put it out there very much. I do hear of a lot of women around our age who are rediscovering their sensuality and their desire for sex," she said.
"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."
Anderson said she became more sex positive after starring in the Netflix series Sex Education for four seasons, in which she played therapist and mother Jean Milburn. "It all came from that character," she said.
Anderson starred alongside David Duchovny in The X-Files from 1993 to 2002, as well as in the 1998 X-Files feature film. She is a mother of three, sharing 31-year-old daughter Piper with ex-husband Clyde Klotz, and sons Oscar, 19, and Felix, 17, with former partner Mark Griffiths.
Secretive teenage relationship
Weeks earlier, Anderson had detailed a "secretive" relationship she had with an older girl at high school, in a separate candid interview about her sexuality. She has previously spoken openly about relationships with women in her past, saying gender is irrelevant to her when connecting with someone.
Chicago-born Anderson has been married twice, first to production designer Clyde Klotz from 1994 to 1997, and then to documentary filmmaker Julian Ozanne from 2004 to 2006. Since 2016 she has been in an on-off relationship with The Crown creator Peter Morgan, though she has never publicly confirmed this.
In an interview with The Sunday Times last month, Anderson opened up about her past after moving to the United States from London at age 11. "One of my first relationships was with an older girl in high school. It felt secretive and illicit and wrong and we had to hide. Later on I had a boyfriend who found out and broke up with me," she told the paper.
She added that she didn't think she was gay because she'd "had a couple of boyfriends," explaining: "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."
Though she has never publicly confirmed her relationship with Morgan, Anderson did tell The Sunday Times: "The person I consider my life partner happens to be male."
Being named 'Sexiest Woman in the World'
It comes after Anderson revealed earlier this week that she couldn't believe it when she was voted the "Sexiest Woman in the World" by FHM readers in 1996, because it was a period when she felt at her least sexy.
Anderson was then one of Britain's biggest stars through her work on The X-Files, but was suffering from crippling self-doubt as she struggled to raise her then two-year-old daughter as a single mother after splitting from Klotz.
Reflecting on the title in an essay about the secret to sex appeal, Anderson said she went through phases of wearing deliberately provocative clothing. Yet at the moment she was deemed to be at her peak "sexy," she said she wasn't confident or comfortable in her body.
"In 1996 I was voted 'Sexiest Woman in the World' by FHM readers, a title that arrived with all the certainty of a cultural verdict," Anderson wrote. "How 'sexy' I felt inside, or indeed looked, when the accolade was announced is another story... The ludicrous irony, of course, is that when the 'world' declared me its sexiest woman, I felt anything but."
Writing for British Vogue, Anderson continued: "I was raising a toddler while working impossibly long days and at the time of the phone interview that accompanied the FHM article, I was in well-worn oversized flannel pyjamas while my daughter darted in and out of the room."
"I had been single for a while, having split from her father, and I wasn't dating. I was shut down, self-protective and detached from my body, a state that was mirrored in my everyday attire. The fantasy projected onto me bore no resemblance to my reality, despite the latex bodysuit and exposed midriff in the accompanying photoshoot. My life revolved around call sheets, line memorisation and motherhood."
Anderson said that three decades on, she feels sexier than ever, adding: "The most seductive thing any of us can wear is the quiet conviction that we belong exactly where we are."
