Gillian Anderson has spent decades playing women who refuse to fit neatly into other people’s expectations. Now, at 58, the X-Files and Sex Education star has given a clearer name to something she has discussed publicly for years: she identifies as pansexual.
In a new interview with The Australian, Anderson was described as saying she is “pan,” meaning pansexual and attracted to people across genders. The comments mark the clearest public use of that label by the actress so far. But describing the moment as a completely unexpected revelation would leave out an important part of the story: Anderson has spoken openly about relationships with women for well over a decade. (Out Magazine)
Gillian Anderson at the Cannes Film Festival in 2026
Source: Purepeople
Anderson first made headlines about her sexuality in 2012 when she discussed having had romantic relationships with women, including a long relationship with a girl while she was in high school. She also said at the time that most of her relationships had been with men. Her comments challenged the assumption that a person’s history must fit exclusively into either a heterosexual or homosexual category. (CBS News)
Years later, Anderson continued talking about sexuality as something more fluid.
In a 2024 profile in The New Yorker, she openly wondered whether “pansexual” or “bisexual” might describe her. Importantly, she was hesitant to claim a label simply because it was available. She expressed concern about presenting herself as belonging to an identity without feeling certain that the term accurately reflected her experience. (The New Yorker)
That context makes her latest comments more significant. They appear less like a sudden change and more like the conclusion of a long period of reflection.
So, what does pansexual mean?
The Human Rights Campaign defines pansexuality as the potential for emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to people of any gender. That does not mean a pansexual person is attracted to everyone, nor does it mean gender can never matter in an individual relationship. Attraction can differ from person to person and does not have to occur equally or simultaneously across genders. (HRC)
Pansexuality can overlap with bisexuality. Bisexual generally refers to attraction to more than one gender, while pansexual is often used by people who feel their potential attraction is not restricted by gender. Different people may choose different labels for very similar experiences, and neither term automatically tells outsiders what a person’s dating history looks like. (HRC Reports)
For Anderson, that distinction appears especially relevant because she has repeatedly emphasized the person rather than the gender of a potential partner.
Gillian Anderson during a recent public appearance
Source: Vogue Italia
The timing of the conversation also connects closely with Anderson’s recent work.
Her 2024 book Want collected anonymous sexual fantasies submitted by women around the world. Its follow-up, More, expands the project with submissions from women in more than 50 countries, examining desire, intimacy, shame and fantasy without forcing those experiences into conventional categories. Publisher Bloomsbury describes the collection as a continuation of Anderson’s effort to create a space where women can discuss desire openly. (Bloomsbury)
Gillian Anderson holding her book Want
Source: Glamour South Africa
Anderson has also credited playing sex therapist Jean Milburn in Netflix’s Sex Education with making her more comfortable discussing sexuality publicly. The character became famous for talking about subjects that other people found embarrassing, and Anderson has said the role influenced the way she approached conversations about sex and desire in her own work. (The Australian)
Her current film career has continued exploring similar territory. Anderson stars alongside Hannah Einbinder in Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. The surreal horror story centers on a director who becomes obsessed with the mysterious actress from an older slasher movie, blending horror with queer desire and complicated emotional relationships. (Festival de Cannes)
At the same time, Anderson has suggested that this intensely sex-focused period of her professional life may be approaching its conclusion. She has talked about wanting to move toward other material after the book and film, making the conversation surrounding her sexuality feel less like a publicity reinvention and more like one chapter in a much longer personal evolution. (LGBTQ Nation)
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully in The X-Files
Source: Wallpaper Abyss
For longtime fans, the openness is striking when compared with the beginning of Anderson’s career.
When The X-Files turned her into an international star, public discussion of sexuality was considerably less flexible than it is today. Anderson later explained that revealing same-sex relationships during those years might have defined her publicly in ways that could have overshadowed her acting. (The New Yorker)
Today she appears considerably more comfortable allowing different parts of her life to coexist.
She can still be Dana Scully to millions of viewers, Jean Milburn to another generation, an author examining women’s fantasies and a woman whose own understanding of attraction has continued developing with age.
There is also a broader point behind the headline. Coming out does not always happen once, at a particular age, with one dramatic declaration. Some people know exactly how they identify when they are young. Others find that existing labels do not fit until much later.
For Anderson, “pansexual” appears to be the word that currently makes sense.
And after years of talking openly about love, women, men and sexual fluidity, the bigger story may not be that Gillian Anderson suddenly changed at 58.
It may be that she finally found the language she wanted to use.