Laverne Cox Revealed Why She's Been Lying About Her Age And How She Feels About It Now

Laverne Cox is about to turn 50 — and she's finally ready to celebrate her age.

The Orange Is the New Black star admits she's been lying about her age since she was 28, but she refuses to be elusive anymore.

She recently explained that it all started when she was dating a younger guy who broke up with her for being "too old."

"I was like, 'Oh if I'm too old, I'll just be 22.' And for the next two years on dating apps and online, I was 22 everywhere," Laverne said on The Ellen Show.

But pretty soon she began to feel uncomfortable about lying, so when people asked her age, she would tell them she was "over 21."

"And so I was 'over 21' from like 2002 to 2019. And then IMDb found out my real age so it started appearing places, and it was freaking me out. I was having such anxiety, and so I started talking to my therapist about it," Laverne shared.

She continued, "I started unpacking all the stories I had about being older. The stories were like, I wasn't hirable, I wasn't datable, I wasn't F-able...and then I worked through all that."

Laverne says she said her real age out loud for the first time at an event in 2019 — and to her surprise, no one cared!

"It was a reminder that in our heads we might have shame about something and it's like terrible, awful...and no one really cares. It's just all in our heads. So I am proudly 49, about to turn 50, and I'm so excited and happy to be able to own it," Laverne declared.

And to top it all off, Laverne noted that telling the truth about her age has been "freeing," particularly because there's a lot less math involved!

Hear all that Laverne had to say below.