Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus and More Stars Who Refuse to Label Their Sexuality: ‘It’s So Fluid’

Credit: George Pimentel/Shutterstock

Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus and More Stars Who Refuse to Label Their Sexuality: ‘It’s So Fluid’

Not putting themselves in a box. As LGBTQ+ representation in media becomes more common, some celebrities have pushed back against the expectation that they have to define their sexuality. “I don’t feel like it’s something I’ve ever felt like I have to explain about myself,” Harry Styles said of his sexuality in a 2017 interview with The Sun. “It’s weird for me — everyone should just be who they want to be. It’s tough to justify somebody having to answer to someone else about stuff like that." Other stars like Demi Lovato have embraced pansexuality for its inclusive nature. "I’m so fluid now, and a part of the reason why I am so fluid is because I was, like, super closeted off," the “Cool for the Summer” singer said during a March 2021 appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, adding that they were attracted to men, women and “anything” in between. Lovato announced that they are nonbinary during a May 2021 episode of their podcast. "Over the past year and a half I've been doing some healing and self-reflective work," the Sonny With a Chance alum said. “And through this work, I've had the revelation that I identify as nonbinary. With that said, I'll be officially changing my pronouns to they/them. I feel that this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am and am still discovering." [jwplayer Q0bby0c7-zhNYySv2] Cara Delevingne, whose exes include Jake Bugg and Ashley Benson, has settled on the pansexual label as well. "I always will remain, I think, pansexual,” the Paper Towns actress told Variety in 2020. “However one defines themselves, whether it’s 'they' or 'he' or 'she,' I fall in love with the person—and that’s that. I’m attracted to the person." Meanwhile, other celebrities like Lily-Rose Depp think you shouldn’t have to choose any label at all. After the model posed for a photo series of people who aren’t “100 percent straight” in 2015, she rejected the notion that she had come out. “That was really misconstrued, that whole thing,” the Dancer actress, then 16, told Nylon in 2016. “A lot of people took it as me coming out, but that’s not what I was trying to do. I was literally doing it just to say that you don’t have to label your sexuality.” Scroll through for a list of stars who prefer not to define their sexuality: [podcast_block]

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Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

The Never Have I Ever actress opened up about being single during a November 2022 episode of Laverne Cox's If We're Being Honest. "Right now in my life, I am so happy just doing me and being there for myself," she explained, noting that she has a broad radar when it comes to dating. "I'm very much so a personality person. If you get that banter with me, you can read my face perfectly, I don't care if you're a boy, girl or in between. You are my person, and you are just the package that that person comes in. I'm very much about the personality and I don't really do labels for attraction."

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Harry Styles

The One Direction alum thinks no labels is the way of the future. In the June 2022 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, Styles talked about the “outdated” expectations people have for him to publicly define his sexuality.

"I've been really open with it with my friends, but that's my personal experience; it's mine," the “As It Was” singer said. "The whole point of where we should be heading, which is toward accepting everybody and being more open, is that it doesn't matter, and it's about not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes you're checking."

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Lily-Rose Depp

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’ daughter told Nylon in 2016 that labeling sexuality is “not that big of a deal.”

“If you like something one day then you do, and if you like something else the other day, it’s whatever,” Depp explained at the time. “You don’t have to label yourself because it’s not set in stone. It’s so fluid and there’s so much pressure on kids to label themselves and say, ‘This is what I am, this is what I like.’”

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Miley Cyrus

When asked about her sexuality during a 2015 Facebook Q&A, the “Malibu” singer replied, "I never want to label myself! I am ready to love anyone that loves me for who I am! I am open!"

In 2016, Cyrus told Variety that meeting a gender-neutral person at the LGBTQ center in Los Angeles helped her understand her own gender identity better.

"I saw one human in particular who didn’t identify as male or female. Looking at them, they were both: beautiful and sexy and tough but vulnerable and feminine but masculine. And I related to that person more than I related to anyone in my life,” the Disney Channel alum said.

“Even though I may seem very different, people may not see me as neutral as I feel. But I feel very neutral. I think that was the first gender-neutral person I’d ever met. Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more. I was like, 'Oh, that’s why I don’t feel straight and I don’t feel gay. It’s because I’m not.'"

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Shay Mitchell

In 2017, Mitchell commented on being repeatedly asked about her sexuality because her character on Pretty Little Liars, Emily, dated women.

“Look, Emily doesn't label herself, and I don't label myself either. I fall in love with the spirit of somebody. Love is love, and that's something that I'll keep saying,” she told Maxim. Mitchell went on to play other LGBTQ+ characters including Peach Salinger on You and Stella Cole in Dollface.

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Amber Heard

The Aquaman actress spoke to Allure about her distaste for labels in their December 2017 issue.

“It's limiting, that LGBTQ thing," Heard said at the time. "It served a function as an umbrella for marginalized people to whom rights were being denied, but it loses its efficacy because of the nuanced nature of humanity. As we become more educated and expand the facts of our nature, we keep adding letters. It was a great shield, but now we're stuck behind it. It's so important to resist labels. I don't care how many letters you add. At some point, it's going to spell 'WE ARE HUMAN.'"

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Chrishell Stause

The Selling Sunset star opened up to her fans about her sexuality after debuting her romance with non-binary musician G Flip in May 2022.

“I know some of you won't understand this or agree with this, but for me it is about the person. It is about their heart,” Stause said in an Instagram video. "For me, I am attracted to masculine energy, and I don't really care what the physical form is."

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Kit Connor

Connor played bisexual rugby player Nick Nelson in the Netflix coming-of-age series Heartstopper. After fans of the series began speculating about his sexuality online, the English actor responded to the public debate via Twitter.

“Twitter is so funny man,” he wrote in May 2022. “Apparently some people on here know my sexuality better than I do." During an appearance on the “Reign With Josh Smith” podcast, he commented on the subject again.

“I mean, for me, I feel like I’m perfectly confident and comfortable with my sexuality,” Connor said. “I’m not too big on labels and things like that. I’m not massive about that, and I don’t feel like I need to label myself, especially publicly.”