Gillian Anderson has shared new details about her past relationships, including a "secretive" teenage romance with an older female student and her current connection with "The Crown" creator Peter Morgan, whom she described as her "life partner."
In a candid interview with The Sunday Times, Anderson, 58, discussed her evolving understanding of her sexuality. "One of my first relationships was with an older girl in high school," she recounted. "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."
Anderson has previously spoken about her openness to relationships regardless of gender. She has been married twice: first to production designer Clyde Klotz from 1994 to 1997, and then to documentary filmmaker Julian Ozanne from 2004 to 2006. Since 2016, she has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Peter Morgan, though their relationship has never been publicly confirmed.
Regarding Morgan, Anderson stated, "The person I consider my life partner happens to be male." This marks a rare public acknowledgment of the depth of her relationship with the "The Crown" creator.
The actress also reflected on being named "Sexiest Woman in the World" by FHM in 1996. At the time, she was raising a toddler as a single mother while working long hours on "The X-Files." She described feeling at her least sexy during that period, struggling with self-doubt and detachment from her body, a stark contrast to the public perception and the accompanying photoshoot.
"How 'sexy' I felt inside – or indeed looked – when the accolade was announced is another story," she wrote in an essay. "The ludicrous irony, of course, is that when the 'world' declared me its sexiest woman, I felt anything but."
Anderson is currently promoting her new film, "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," a queer slasher movie directed by Jane Schoenbrun. The film, which received a six-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, features Anderson as a reclusive actress. Schoenbrun, who identifies as transfeminine and non-binary, praised Anderson's performance, calling it "grotesque" in certain moments" while also "incredibly sexy and weird."