Amid her new relationship with former Love Island star and Englishman Chris Hughes, JoJo Siwa is opening up about the pressure she has felt over the years to define her sexuality.
In an interview published on Friday with the Daily Mail’s You Magazine, the 22-year-old addressed the ongoing speculation about her love life. The former Nickelodeon star came out in 2021 at the age of 17, posting a photo of herself wearing a T-shirt that read BEST. GAY. COUSIN. EVER. At the time, she identified as a lesbian. Since then, she had been dating women and nonbinary people exclusively until she met Hughes on the most recent season of Celebrity Big Brother U.K.
“When I came out at 17, I said: ‘I’m pansexual, because I don’t care [about gender],’” Siwa told the outlet. “But then I kind of boxed myself in, and I said: ‘I’m a lesbian.’ And I think I did that because of pressure.
“In a weird way, I think it came a little bit from inside the [LGBTQ+] community at times … from people I know, from partners I’ve had,” she added. “You just get put in this world where you feel like, because you now have said, ‘Oh, I’m a lesbian,’ you have to be a lesbian. And the truth is, sexuality is fluid.”
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Siwa reiterated that she currently identifies as queer — though her relationship with Hughes has certainly ignited unnecessary chatter about her sexuality. Before she went on Big Brother, Siwa was dating Kath Ebbs, who claims Siwa dumped them for Hughes at the CBB wrap party. Even Siwa’s childhood hero, Miley Cyrus, chimed in on the discourse, joking in a video played at D.C.’s WorldPride that Siwa needed to get “back out of” the closet. While Siwa claimed that Cyrus confirmed they were all good via DM, she added in a lengthy Instagram post that the joke was “not what the world, or myself needs to hear any day of the week.”
Siwa went on to describe Hughes as “the favorite part of my life.” If their Instagram photo dumps are any indication, the fledgling couple do seem pretty happy: They’ve been busy hanging out with horses in the Cotswolds, taking cuddly selfies in bed, and generally gushing over each other in various media outlets. Here’s hoping there are many more happy times ahead for Siwa and her “gorgeous boy” (and his “gorgeous horse”).
