Gillian Anderson reveals 'illicit' same-sex relationship

Gillian Anderson has revealed she had an "illicit" same-sex relationship in her teenage years.

The Camp Miasma star confessed to a teenage romance with an "older girl" when she was in high school, but said that at the time, she never thought of herself as gay.

"One of my first relationships was with an older girl in high school," Gillian, 58, told The Sunday Times in an interview published yesterday.

She explained they kept their romance under wraps as they didn't feel they would be accepted as a couple - which turned out to be the case, after she eventually told someone and they reacted badly.

"It felt secretive and illicit and wrong, and we had to hide," the Sex Education actress said. "Later on, I had a boyfriend who found out and broke up with me."

Asked whether she considered herself gay, Gillian explained that, as she had had affairs with both sexes, she had always thought of herself as broadly heterosexual.

"I didn't, because I'd had a couple of boyfriends," she said. "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 for ever."

Having been married and divorced twice - both times to men - the X Files star said she was currently seeing a man, but explained that she no longer saw relationships with women as strictly transient.

"The person I consider my life partner happens to be male," she said, "but I think I would feel the same way if it were a woman. I'd feel, 'This is my life partner.' When I was younger, there were parts of my brain that thought (women) were temporary."