Celebrities Who Came Out as Lesbian, Gay, or Transgender Later in Life
In today’s pop culture landscape, we have inspiring LGBTQ+ celebrities who are coming out at younger and younger ages — like YouTube sensation JoJo Siwa who came out as gay in 2021 at age 17, or Zaya Wade, the transgender daughter of Siohvaughn Funches and Dwyane Wade, who came out to her parents at age 12 but (according to dad) has known her gender identity since she was 3 years old. But while our current climate has by no means eradicated the homophobia that just a few decades back was as commonplace to sitcom TV as a laugh track, the progress is undeniable.
But, of course, not everyone fully understands their sexuality at a young age. Plus, many celebrities have talked about the fear of being blacklisted from the business, jeered in the press, or alienated from their loved ones if they ever were to come out.
So, with all that combined, some celebrities like Tommy Dorfman, Wayne Brady and Niecy Nash Betts all came out later in life. Happily for them, it seems owning their true identities to the rest of the world is as empowering as it is freeing.
“A lot of people have said, in the beginning, ‘Niecy Nash has finally come out,’ and I said, ‘Come out of where?’ I wasn’t in anywhere,” Nash Betts said in a 2021 Red Table Talk episode after marrying her wife, Jessica Betts, per Entertainment Tonight. “I wasn’t living a sexually repressed life. I loved the boys I was with when I was with them. Now this is who I love. I wasn’t living a lie or trying to make myself like a man. I liked him, I liked him real good.”
“If I had to label myself in this moment I would label myself with the term ‘free,'” Nash added.
We commend all these stars’ bravery in trusting the public with who they are and paving the way for others to do the same, whether it’s at 15, 30, 45, or 75 — it’s never too late to start living your truth. Check out all the stars who came out later in life below!
A version of this article was originally published in June 2021.
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Sophia Bush
Sophia Bush opened up about her sexuality at 41 years old in a candid essay to Glamour in April 2024.
“I sort of hate the notion of having to come out in 2024,” Bush wrote. “But I’m deeply aware that we are having this conversation in a year when we’re seeing the most aggressive attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community in modern history. There were more than 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills proposed in state legislatures in 2023, so for that reason I want to give the act of coming out the respect and honor it deserves.”
“I’ve experienced so much safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally all of my life, that, as I came into myself, I already felt it was my home,” she continued. “I think I’ve always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum. Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.”
Tommy Dorfman
13 Reasons Why star Tommy Dorfman came out as a trans woman in a candid 2021 interview with Time. “For a year now, I have been privately identifying and living as a woman—a trans woman,” she said. At the time, she was 29 years old.
“It’s funny to think about coming out, because I haven’t gone anywhere,” she continued. “I view today as a reintroduction to me as a woman, having made a transition medically.”
“Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out,” she added. “Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy.”
George Takei
George Takei came out in 2005 when he was 68 years old. In an interview in 2023, Takei explained that he did so out of anger over then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s decision to veto a bill that would’ve legalized gay marriage in California.
“Why did it take me so long to come out?” Takei told The Stage, per Variety. “Because I’m an actor and I wanted to work. I learned at a young age that you couldn’t be an openly gay actor and hope to be employed. And I was already an Asian-American actor, so I was already limited a lot. To this day, there are big Hollywood actors who are not out in order to protect their careers.”
“I was closeted for a long period of my career,” Takei continued. “I was silent during the AIDS crisis, which fills me with guilt, although I did write checks and checks to AIDS organizations. Why did I come out when I did? Because Schwarzenegger presented himself as a movie star who had worked and was friends with gays and lesbians, many of whom voted for him, but then vetoed that bill. I was so angry that I spoke to the press for the first time as a gay man at the age of 68.”
Niecy Nash Betts
Niecy Nash Betts surprised the world in 2020 when she revealed she had married her girlfriend, Jessica Betts. At the time, she was 50 years old.
“I don’t feel like my marriage is my coming out of anywhere, but rather a going into myself and being honest about who I love,” she told People at the time. “And I’m not limiting myself on what that love is supposed to look like.”
“I was not suppressing my sexuality my whole life,” she added. “I love who I love. At one point in my life, I married twice and I love those people. And today I love this person. I’ve done everything I wanted to do on my own terms and my own way. So my choice now in a partner has nothing to do with who I’ve always been. It’s a matter of who I am in this moment.”
Wayne Brady
Wayne Brady beamed with joy when he opened up about his sexuality at 51 years old in 2023.
“I am pansexual,” he told People. “Bisexual — with an open mind!”
“In doing my research, both with myself and just with the world, I couldn’t say if I was bisexual, because I had to really see what that was, especially because I really have not gotten a chance to act on anything,” he explained of his sexuality. “So, I came to pansexual because — and I know that I’m completely messing up the dictionary meaning — but to me, pan means being able to be attracted to anyone who identifies as gay, straight, bi, transsexual or non-binary. Being able to be attracted across the board. And, I think, at least for me for right now, that is the proper place. I took pan to mean that not only can I be attracted to any of these people or types physically, but I could be attracted to the person that is there.”
Queen Latifah
At the 2021 BET Awards, Queen Latifah came out by confirming her relationship with her long-rumored partner as she accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award, per Them. She was also 51 at the time.
“Eboni, my love. Rebel, my love,” Latifah said, referring to her partner Eboni Nichols and her son, Rebel. “Peace. Happy Pride!”
Victor Garber
In 2013, actor Victor Garber casually confirmed that he and his rumored partner Rainer Andreesen were indeed together.
“I don’t really talk about it but everybody knows,” Garber, who was 64 at the time, told Greg Hernandez, per E! News. “He’s going to be out here with me for the SAG Awards.”
Barry Manilow
In 2015, the news broke that Barry Manilow, who had yet to open up about his sexuality, had married his longtime partner Garry Kief in 2014 at the age of 73.
Two years later, Manilow opened up about the world’s unexpected reaction.
“I thought I would be disappointing them if they knew I was gay. So I never did anything,” Manilow told People. Turns out, “When they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy. The reaction was so beautiful — strangers commenting, ‘Great for you!’ I’m just so grateful for it.”
Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster bravely came out in a room full of celebrities as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille Award at the 2013 Golden Globes. At the time, she was 51 years old.
She began the speech by teasing the audience, per The Guardian. “I have a sudden urge to say something that I’ve never been able to air in public,” Foster told the room, before confessing “I am single. Yes I am. I am single.” Of course, the whole room laughed along with her joke.
“I hope you’re not disappointed that there won’t be a big coming-out speech tonight,” she continued. “I already did my coming-out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age. Those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers, and then gradually and proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met.”
Mo’Nique
During her new Netflix special My Name Is Mo’Nique, Mo’Nique seemingly came out. She detailed how she pushed down her feelings for women due to her religious family, until one day she came out to her father. She recalled: “‘Daddy, I want to be with another woman, sexually,'” the comedian said she told him. “And he looked at me, so beautifully and so patient and so loving, and said, ‘Bitch, me too!'”
Alison Brie
While reading Celebrity Thirst Tweets with Buzzfeed, alongside her husband Dave Franco for their new film Somebody I Used To Know, Alison Brie revealed she’s bisexual.
Brie read a tweet saying, “Listen, I am bisexual for a reason, and that reason is strictly to be used in a threesome by Dave Franco and Alison Brie.” To which she then said: “That’s also why I’m bisexual.”
Jena Malone
On Aug 20, Jena Malone posted on Instagram that she identifies as pansexual, saying, “I guess It felt like I was a heterosexual man in a woman’s body. I visualized his desires and placed them on to me. But this , was never the whole of the story that was meant for me. So I’ve been learning a new way to tell it. Using words to guide me not define me. That my sexual identity has more to teach and to tell me. Finding words that feel more right to explore in my telling. Pansexuality. Sapiosexuality. Polyamory.”
“I feel like I’m a little bit late to the game in being able to have less shame,” she told Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve been loving the process of learning more about myself and others through different terms that open windows, those windows then turns into doors and then I arrive at a place to find all this cool stuff out there.”
Rebel Wilson
In 2022, Rebel Wilson posted a headline-making photo of her and her girlfriend Ramona Agruma, coming out to the public. She posted the beautiful photo to her Instagram, saying, “Verified I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess ??????#loveislove.”
Chrishell Stause
In May 2022, Chrishell Stause shocked the world when she announced she was in a relationship with non-binary musician G Flip. She confirmed the relationship on the recent Selling Sunset reunion, saying “I recently have been spending a lot of time with someone that’s very important to me. Their name is G Flip. They’re non-binary, so they go by they/them. And they are an extremely talented musician.”
She added that they originally met because Stause was set to be in their music video. In an archived Instagram story, per The Cut, Stause uploaded a “closet update,” saying “OK, I’m going to come out of [the closet] now.” We’re obsessed with the cheeky double meaning!
Carl Nassib
Former Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first openly gay active NFL player in history when he came out on Instagram in June 2021.
“I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” he said in a video. “I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that like one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary, but until then I’m going to do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate.”
Colton Underwood
Colton Underwood came out as a gay man on Good Morning America two years after appearing as the lead of The Bachelor. During the talk, Underwood opened up about how his religious upbringing had prevented him from accepting his own sexuality.
“I used to wake up in the morning and pray for Him to take the gay away. I used to pray for Him to change me,” he told GMA’s Robin Roberts. “I can now wake up and pray to God and I can have faith and I can go into church and be present and not have it be conditional on this topic of, ‘Take this off my plate and I’ll still worship you and I’ll still be there.’ … That’s helped, to be honest with you.”
Elliot Page
In December 2020, Elliott Page came out as transgender at the age of 33 on Twitter.
“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot,” the actor wrote. “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life.”
Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen came out as a gay man at 48 years old when he went on BBC 3 to protest the passing of a bill that prohibited local authorities from engaging in anything that could be considered a “promotion of homosexuality.”
“I certainly would [like to see it repealed],” he said. “It’s offensive to anyone who is — like myself — homosexual, apart from the whole business of what can and cannot be taught to children.”
Caitlyn Jenner
In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner came out to the world as a transgender woman at age 65 with an intimate Vanity Fair profile and photo spread by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.
“If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life,'” Jenner admitted at the time. “‘You never dealt with yourself,’ and I don’t want that to happen.”
Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes was 44 years old when she came out as a gay woman in 2008 at an LGBTQ rights rally in Las Vegas.
“I don’t really talk about my sexual orientation. I didn’t feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life,” Sykes told the crowd. “Everybody that knows me personally, they know I’m gay. But that’s the way people should be able to live their lives.”
“We took a huge leap forward and then got dragged 12 feet back,” she continued. “Now, I gotta get in their face. I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”
Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin came out as gay at age 38 when he finally addressed years of speculation about his sexuality in a post on his website.
“I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man,” he wrote, via CNN. “I am very blessed to be who I am.”
Cynthia Nixon
At age 45, Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon clarified to the world via a letter to The Advocate that she identifies as bisexual after controversially commenting to the New York Times that she was “choosing” to be gay.
“While I don’t often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual,” Nixon wrote, per Huffington Post. “I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have ‘chosen’ is to be in a gay relationship.”
Ellen DeGeneres
In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres came out as a gay woman at the age of 39 with a one-two punch of a Time magazine cover announcing her sexuality and a special episode of her TV show Ellen in which her sitcom character, much like her, comes out as gay.
“I never wanted to be ‘the lesbian actress,'” she told Time. “I never wanted to be the spokesperson for the gay community. Ever. I did it for my own truth.”
Braunwyn Windham-Burke
Real Housewives of Orange County star Braunwyn Windham-Burke may not have lasted long on the reality series, but her time there had a profound impact on her. Shortly after her second season on the series aired, she came out as a lesbian on Instagram.
“I am a lesbian,” the reality star wrote. “At 43 years old, I’ve finally been able to accept this part of myself and I’ve realized there are no rules about when someone should come out. This is my time.”
Rosie O’Donnell
At 32 years old, Rosie O’Donnell wasn’t sure whether her fans thought she was straight, but she did know that her 1992 confession to Cosmopolitan that she was a lesbian had never made it to print. So, she set the record straight at Caroline’s Comedy Club in 2002, confirming her sexuality to the crowd.
“Big whoop,” said one attendee, per the New York Times.
