Gillian Anderson Reveals She’s Pansexual After Years of Exploring Attraction to Different People

Gillian Anderson is embracing a new way of defining her sexuality at 58.

The X-Files star revealed that she identifies as pansexual — meaning she can be attracted to people regardless of gender — during a candid interview with The Australian published on Thursday, September 10.

“In my younger years, I was in relationships with women,” Anderson reflected during the interview.

Putting a name to her sexuality comes after years of Anderson speaking openly about her attraction to both men and women — and even questioning which label best described her.

While promoting her 2024 book Want, a collection of anonymous letters about women’s sexual fantasies, Anderson admitted in an interview with The New Yorker that she was considering whether she might be bisexual or pansexual.

More recently, Anderson reflected on one of her earliest relationships with a woman during an August interview with The Times, published August 15.

“One of my first relationships was with an older girl in high school,” she recalled, explaining that the romance “felt secretive and illicit and wrong” and had to be hidden. A boyfriend later ended their relationship after discovering her past with the girl.

Anderson told The Times she simply didn’t have the vocabulary at the time to understand what she was experiencing, particularly because she was also attracted to men.

Anderson told The Australian that she has also noticed she’s not alone in coming to an understanding about her sexuality later in life.

“I do hear of a lot of women around our age who are rediscovering their sensuality and their desire for [intimacy],” she said, adding that they appeared to be having “a lot of fun” dating and being approached on apps by younger men.

Per Page Six, Anderson has been linked to The Crown creator Peter Morgan since 2016. She said in her interview with The Times, “The person I consider my life partner happens to be male, but I think I would feel the same way if it were a woman.”