Lily Cole is ready to talk about her sexuality.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times , the 33-year-old British supermodel, actress, and environmental advocate says she identities as “queer.”
“I like that word [queer] because of its openness, because I think all those boundaries are quite rigid,” she said. “I have lots of friends who identify as bisexual, lesbian or whatever, who also identify as queer.”
Cole, whose film credits include Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi and Snow White and the Huntsman, also appeared on the cover of Sunday Times Style in a multi-hued lace ruffle coat by Alexandra Sipa that she described on Instagram as being made out of “discarded electrical wires.”
Cole, dubbed “fashion’s new green goddess” in the cover headline, is currently promoting her new (and very timely) book about the climate crisis, Who Cares Wins: How to Protect the Planet You Love.
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In her interview, Cole addressed her silence over her sexuality so far.
“I’ve always been quite private about my private life, consciously, and I want to continue to be, so I don’t feel the need to be explicit,” she said, adding, “At the same time I feel the need to acknowledge that I am not straight.”
In her book, Cole also discusses her queerness, and about parenting her five-year-old daughter Wylde with partner Kwame Ferreira, as Out noted.
“Just as we do not choose the circumstances and ancestral patterns we are born into, none of us choose the cultural norms and laws we inherit,” she writes. “Had my mixed-race daughter been born in a different country, she would have been a crime. If I were living in another country today, my queerness would be a crime.”
On Monday, Cole took to Instagram to thank Sunday Times Style for addressing “some of the less obvious but important things that crop up in it,” including her sexuality, in the interview.
“It felt so good to step back into fashion [and] discover how many amazing new sustainable clothes / designers there are,” she wrote.
Fashion’s new green goddess is also a queer one.
Who Cares Wins: How to Protect the Planet You Love is available now.
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