Gillian Anderson Opens Up About 'Illicit' Same-Sex Relationship She Had In High School In Rare Comments About Her Sexuality

The truth is out there, and Gillian Anderson is sharing a little more of hers. The X-Files star is opening up about her sexuality and a secret same-sex relationship she had as a teenager.

In an August 16 interview with The Sunday Times, Anderson got candid about her early romantic life after moving from London to Grand Rapids, Michigan, at age 11, revealing that one of her first relationships was with “an older girl in high school.”

Anderson recalled the secrecy surrounding the relationship:

“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.”

Despite its significance, Anderson didn’t see the relationship as defining her sexuality. Having also dated a few boys, she didn’t identify as LGBTQ+ at the time.

Anderson admitted she didn’t have the language for what she was feeling:

“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 forever.”

Anderson has offered glimpses into this part of her past before. In a 2012 interview with Out, she said she had been “in a relationship with a girl for a long time” during high school, while also discussing how her relationships and appearance pushed against what was considered socially acceptable.

With hindsight, Anderson has a different read on those experiences, as well as the limits she once placed on relationships with women.

She reflected on that mindset:

“[T]here were parts of my brain that thought [women] were temporary.”

At the time, Anderson also didn’t consider those relationships an indication that she was gay, pointing to the fact that she had “had a couple of boyfriends.”

These days, she leaves considerably more room for possibility. While the person she considers her life partner “happens to be male,” Anderson said that wouldn’t change if her partner were a woman: “I’d feel, ‘This is my life partner.’”

Anderson has also been linked to The Crown creator Peter Morgan on and off for a decade, though neither has confirmed their relationship.

Naturally, Anderson’s reflections sparked a conversation well beyond the interview:

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Anderson stars in the newly released queer horror film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which hit cinemas in August 2026.

The film follows Kris (Hannah Einbinder), a queer young filmmaker tasked with resurrecting the defunct 1980s slasher franchise Camp Miasma as a modern, “elevated” reboot. That sends her back to the remote, abandoned campgrounds where it all began and face-to-face with Anderson’s Billy Presley, the original movie’s reclusive “final girl.”

Anderson explained why Camp Miasma would have hit differently for her younger self:

“I was a punk in a conservative town. There wasn’t a single other person who had a nose ring and a mohawk. I was very self-conscious, with low self-esteem... Then in the States I was embraced as this unique entity with my accent, and I took advantage until that wore off. If [Camp Miasma] had come out then, I would have felt seen.”

That sense of being seen runs through Camp Miasma, even as the queer horror takes aim at Hollywood’s obsession with reboots, resurrected IP, corporate mandates for “wokeness” and cynical sequel culture.

The film debuted at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it opened the Un Certain Regard section and won the Queer Palm before making its way to theaters.

Before you venture into Camp Miasma, consider the trailer your official warning:

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For Anderson, the timing feels especially fitting. As Camp Miasma puts queer stories front and center, she’s revisiting a time when she didn’t yet have the words to fully understand her own.