12 celebrities who have declined to label their sexuality
- These 12 stars have decided not to publicly define their sexuality.
- Ariana Grande said she doesn't "feel the need" to clarify, while Harry Styles said it's "personal."
- Billie Eilish, Lily-Rose Depp, Joshua Bassett, and more have similarly declined to use labels.
Eilish has only publicly dated men, though she spoke openly about her attraction to women during a 2023 interview with Variety.
After Eilish's revelation sparked headlines, the Grammy winner said she thought it was "obvious," adding, "I just don't really believe in it. I'm just like, 'Why can't we just exist?'"
The "Hit Me Hard and Soft" singer also declared that "nobody should be pressured" to come out or label their sexuality.
"Who fucking cares?" she told Rolling Stone. "The whole world suddenly decided who I was, and I didn't get to say anything or control any of it."
"Dude, I've known people that don't know their sexuality, or feel comfortable with it, until they're in their forties, fifties, sixties," Eilish continued. "It takes a while to find yourself, and I think it's really unfair, the way that the internet bullies you into talking about who you are and what you are."
The "Everybody's Gay" singer took an indefinite approach to gender and sexuality in a 2018 interview with Billboard.
"I personally don't ascribe to just one thing. I cannot sit here right now and tell you I'm just one thing," she said. "That's why the colors for LGBTQ+ are a rainbow! Because there's a spectrum, and right now we try to keep it black and white. That's just not working for me."
More recently, Lizzo described monogamy as "a little claustrophobic" because she doesn't "want any rules" when it comes to love.
"That doesn't mean I'm out here fucking and sucking and ducking. It doesn't mean he is either," she said, referring to her boyfriend Myke Wright. "It just means that there are no expectations, and that way, the love gets to just be the main event."
Bassett clarified that he "wasn't joking" when he said he was attracted to Harry Styles, but also told GQ that he's not "rushing to a conclusion" about his sexuality.
"There are plenty of letters in the alphabet," he said. "Sometimes your letter changes, sometimes you try a different one, other times you realize you're not what you thought you were, or maybe you always knew. All of these can be true."
"I'm happy to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community because they embrace all," he continued. "Don't let anyone tell you love isn't love. They're the ones who probably need it the most."
Rexha opened up about her sexuality in a 2021 interview with Gay Times, saying she's attracted to "whoever inspires me."
"It's just so hard because everybody wants to put people in boxes and I don't like boxes, as you can tell with my music," she said, adding that she believes sexuality is a "scale."
"Until I find 'the one,' I can't just say what I am. I just want to find someone I love and who loves me — and I don't care if that's a boy or a girl," she said.
Mitchell, who played the lesbian character Emily Fields on "Pretty Little Liars," opened up to Cosmopolitan about her fluid approach to dating.
"When I started, people were like, 'What are you?' I'm like, right now I'm dating a guy. I don't know what it's going to be in three years," she said.
"You love who you love. Black, white, polka-dot, that's what my dad always said. I'm never going to label myself," she continued. "I could be 50 and dating a woman and then what? I said I was straight and now I'm not?"
Posey told fans that he's had sexual experiences with men during a livestream on OnlyFans. This inspired tabloids to describe him as "pansexual," which Posey didn't necessarily agree with.
"I didn't label that. The kids, the fans, or whoever wrote those articles labeled that," he told Variety. "I thought that was really interesting that it just broke down this wall that I didn't feel like I put up, but it was easier for me to just be honest about all that stuff."
The "Teen Wolf" star also told Zach Sang that he's "sexually fluid," but isn't committed to a specific term.
"I've never defined myself. I don't think I want to put a label on myself 'cause somebody's going to get mad," he said. "Whatever. I'm just me. I've been with dudes, I've been with girls."
Tyler, the Creator seemed to come out as queer on "I Ain't Got Time," a single from his 2017 album "Flower Boy" ("Next line will have 'em like 'woah' / I've been kissing white boys since 2004").
The album's seventh track "Garden Shed" has also been interpreted as a metaphor for being closeted ("Truth is, since a youth kid, thought it was a phase / Thought it'd be like the phrase 'poof,' gone / But it's still goin' on").
On the heels of his 2019 Grammy-winning album "Igor," which explores an emotionally turbulent love affair with a man, GQ asked him about his sexuality.
"I like girls — I just end up fucking their brother every time," he said.
Much like Tyler (his former Odd Future bandmate), Ocean has written songs about relationships with both men and women. His debut album, "Channel Orange," was an homage to his first love.
"I was 19 years old. He was too," Ocean revealed on Tumblr.
"Back then, my mind would wander to the women I had been with, the ones I cared for and thought I was in love with," he wrote. "I reminisced about the sentimental songs I enjoyed when I was a teenager.. The ones I played when I experienced a girlfriend for the first time. I realized they were written in a language I did not yet speak."
However, when GQ asked in 2012 if Ocean considers himself bisexual, the singer declined to answer.
"You can move to the next question. I'll respectfully say that life is dynamic and comes along with dynamic experiences, and the same sentiment that I have towards genres of music, I have towards a lot of labels and bos and shit," he said.
"As a writer, as a creator, I'm giving you my experiences," he continued. "But just take what I give you. You ain't got to pry beyond that. I'm giving you what I feel like you can feel. The other shit, you can't feel. You can't feel a box. You can't feel a label. Don't get caught up in that shit."
In 2015, Palmer released a music video for her single "I Don't Belong To You," which sees her leaving a man's bed to meet up with a woman.
"The video was to represent the young woman today — it's not the traditional woman anymore — and not the specifics of 'Am I gay? Am I straight? Am I bi?'" she told People.
"I'm making the rules for myself, and I don't have to be stuck down to one label I don't feel the need to define nothing to nobody, because I'm always changing," she continued. "Why say that I'm this or that when I might not be tomorrow? I'm gonna follow my own feelings and my own heart."
More recently, the "Nope" actor explained her fluid approach in an interview with Them.
"I'm not bound in my sexuality. I'm just doing me," she said. "I think that hopefully people are coming around to that reality when it comes to the queer community. Why the hell do I need to declare to you who's laying in my bed?"
After Depp posed for iO Tillett Wright's Self Evident Truths photography project, which "exists to spread awareness and understanding about a broader spectrum of human sexuality," she expressed discomfort with the public's reaction.
"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," she said during an interview with Nylon.
"You don't have to label yourself, because it's not set in stone. It's so fluid and there's so much pressure on kids to label themselves and say, 'This is what I am, this is what I like.' I was just trying to say that it's unnecessary," she continued.
The star of HBO's "The Idol" added: "It's not anybody's business, because I am going to date whoever I'm going to date."
Depp is currently in a relationship with 070 Shake, a rapper and singer who shares Depp's unlabeled approach to sexuality.
"I don't really identify myself as queer or gay or anything," she told Pitchfork. "I just like girls."
Styles has nodded to queerness throughout his solo career. He released his liberation anthem "Lights Up" on National Coming Out Day, wrote a song about disappointing boyfriends, and starred as a closeted gay man in the 2022 drama "My Policeman."
More recently, he described his Love on Tour set list as "sparkly bi music."
Styles has also insisted that he's not "sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting."
"I've been really open with it with my friends, but that's my personal experience; it's mine," he told Better Homes & Gardens.
"The whole point of where we should be heading, which is toward accepting everybody and being more open, is that it doesn't matter," he continued, "and it's about not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes you're checking."
Grande, who has long been an outspoken ally of the LGBTQ community, sparked speculation about her own sexuality when she released the 2019 single "Monopoly."
"I like women and men," she sings in the post-chorus.
The song was cowritten by Grande's close friend and collaborator Victoria Monét, who is openly bisexual.
When a fan asked Monét on Instagram if Grande is also bisexual, the songwriter replied, "She said what she said."
Grande later chimed in on Twitter and defended her decision not to "label" herself.
"i haven't before and still don't feel the need to now," Grande wrote. "which is OK."