Kristen Stewart infamously came out as queer in the middle of her Saturday Night Live hosting debut.
“I’m a little nervous to be hosting because I know the president’s probably watching, and, um, I don’t think he likes me that much,” Stewart quipped in her February 2017 monologue, referring to former president Donald Trump disapproving of her cheating on Robert Pattinson. “The president is not a huge fan of me, which is so OK, because Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re really probably not going to like me now. I’m, like, so gay, dude.”
Stewart, who had previously dated Speak costar Michael Angarano and Twilight love interest Pattinson during her early years in the spotlight, had never publicly disclosed her sexuality.
“Honestly, I think it was just funny,” she told E! News one month later. “Not to diminish the point, because I think that saying things so bluntly is absolutely important, but at the same time, the only reason I haven’t ever done that is because there is an ambiguity to that and I wanted things to be really real for me.”
She continued, “I’m so utterly proud that I’ve had so many people be like, ‘Thank you,’ and I’m like, ‘No, thank you.’ It’s kind of mutual, full circle.”
Since coming out, Stewart dated the likes of Alicia Cargile, St. Vincent, Soko, Stella Maxwell and Dylan Meyer. Stewart and Meyer got engaged in 2021.
Keep scrolling for more of Stewart’s candid thoughts about sexuality and coming out as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community:
August 2015
“Google me, I’m not hiding,” she quipped to Nylon when asked if she was dating Cargile. “I think in three or four years, there are going to be a whole lot more people who don’t think it’s necessary to figure out if you’re gay or straight. It’s like, just do your thing.”
May 2016
As a child actor, Stewart always felt a need to label herself in the public eye before she eventually put a stop to it.
“I had to have some answer about who I was,” the Spencer actress told Variety. “I felt this weird responsibility because I didn’t want to seem fearful. But nothing seemed appropriate. So I was like, ‘F–k, how do I define that?’ I’m not going to.”
Stewart added that “not defining” her sexuality is the epitome of “what [she’s] about,” adding, “If you don’t get it, I don’t have time for you.”
October 2016
Months earlier, Stewart confirmed her romance with Cargile before telling Elle she was “not ashamed” about dating a woman.
“I’m not confused,” she said. “Things have changed. And not just with me — we’re really allowed to encourage this new acceptance and be awesome.”
March 2017
She told the Sunday Times that she came out on SNL because “it just seemed important and topical,” denying that she dated Pattinson out of confusion.
“I wasn’t hiding anything,” Stewart noted. “I didn’t talk about my first relationships that went public because I wanted things that are mine to be mine. I hated it that details of my life were being turned into a commodity and peddled around the world. But considering I had so many eyes on me, I suddenly realized [my private life] affects a greater number of people than just me. It was an opportunity to surrender a bit of what was mine, to make even one other person feel good about themselves.”
September 2018
“Yeah, ambiguity is my favorite thing ever. In terms of sexuality? For sure,” she said during an interview for Paris’ Mastermind Magazine. “And also in making films, if you perfectly answer every question, you don’t allow for people to have their own experience and really indulge in thought. I feel that same way about how we f—k each other. You don’t want to know everything all the time.”
January 2024
Since coming out, Stewart sees Twilight in a new light despite it focusing on a heterosexual, teen love triangle between a human girl, a vampire boy and a werewolf guy.
“I don’t think it necessarily started off that way, but I also think that the fact that I was there at all, it was percolating,” Stewart told Variety. “It’s such a gay movie. I mean, Jesus Christ, Taylor [Lautner] and Rob and me, and it’s so hidden and not OK. I mean, a Mormon woman [Stephenie Meyer] wrote this book. It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love.”
March 2024
Stewart appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone the previous month, where she wore a jockstrap and suggestively put one hand down the front of it. The image sparked backlash, which she called “ironic.”
“I feel like I’ve seen a lot of male pubic hair on the cover of things. I’ve seen a lot of hands in pants,” she said on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “I think there’s a certain overt acknowledgment of a female sexuality that has its own volition in a way that’s annoying for people who are sexist and homophobic. Female sexuality isn’t supposed to actually want anything but to be had. [The cover] feels like it’s protruding in a way that might be annoying. But f–k you.”
