The X Files' Gillian Anderson Opens Up About Lesbian Affairs Following The Death Of Former Girlfriend

The X Files star Gillian Anderson has made no secret of the fact she has had several lesbian affairs but now she's opened up about her sexuality after one of her female lovers died last year.

The actress says she felt compelled to talk as she felt there was no longer such a stigma attached to same sex relationships.

She told Out magazine that she was involved in a lesbian love affair for "a long time" during her high school years and confessed to more same-sex flings.

Now, in a new interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, the twice-married star said: "I was talking to Out about gays and choice, and the view that you can just choose not to be gay in some way.

"I decided to talk about it now because someone with whom I was in a relationship a couple of decades ago - a woman - passed away about a year ago.

"I was talking about her and, in the context of the gentle conversation we were having, I thought I would say that I have had a couple of relationships with women, but that wasn't my experience because I did have a choice. I always knew I still liked boys."

Despite experiencing several same-sex relationships, the actress said she never labelled herself as a lesbian.

"Being gay was never something that I identified with 100 per cent, because I knew that for me it wasn't the only way," she said.

"I haven't spoken up about it before because there isn't the same fear and stigma now that there was. But she had just passed and I just wanted to speak about it in a matter-of-fact kind of way."

The star has been married twice - first to Clyde Klotz, an assistant art director on The X Files who she divorced before marrying the documentary maker Julian Ozanne in 2004. They announced their separation two years later.