Keke Palmer has become the latest celebrity to open up about her sexuality.
In a recent appearance on The Best Podcast Ever with Raven and Miranda the 29-year-old mother of one said that she is at a point where she wants to “explore her life” after spending most of her childhood and adulthood repressing her sexuality.
“There was a moment in my life where I was like ya know, can I be myself? The moment where you overthink s—,” Palmer told co-hosts Raven-Symoné and her wife Miranda Maday. “That’s not even me, why am I overthinking this? I guess you just get to the point where I want my life to be my own life.”
This isn’t the first time Palmer has opened up about not wanting to fit in a box.
“There is like an unsaid thing that can make you feel — and because I liked guys too, I was kinda like, ‘Well, we don’t have to talk about it,’ ” the actress shared. “Because I like guys too, it was like that’s another extra thing that no one really has to know about. I don’t really have to live out,” adding that “I ultimately just feel like the acceptance of that part of myself, in general, was a part of my process of being able to have love in my life.”
She continued that her parents “never cared” about her sexuality and have always supported her personal and professional decisions.
“Sexuality and stuff like that, that was not even — my parents never even cared about something like that or talked about that,” she said. “And I know that by the time they saw how free of a spirit I was, and whoever I wanted to date, they were like, ‘Whoever cares.’ It was never anything that was in their mind.”
In April, the Illinois native received the Vanguard Award during the Los Angeles LGBT Center Gala, where she delivered an emotional speech about her sexuality.
“I’ve always been my own person, and sexuality and identity, for me, it’s always been confusion. I never felt straight enough; I never felt gay enough; I never felt woman enough; I never felt man enough. I always felt like I was a little bit of everything,” adding that feeling that way caused her “pain and resentment.”
“Why did my gender have to define the power I have in the world? And why does my gender get to decide my sexuality?” Palmer continued. “Since I was younger, I always questioned the boxes I was forced to be in and it starts with who you’re supposed to be as a child, you’re supposed to be as a Black person, or whatever the background you are from. Those walls just try to cave you in from every damn angle — who you are as a creative, who you are as a friend.”
“There is no greater masterpiece than living your truth,” she added.
