Topics: Celebrity, LGBTQ, Sex and Relationships, UK News, US News, TV And Film
Despite only ever being romantically linked to men during her three-decade stint in the spotlight, Kate Winslet this week confirmed that she previously explored her sexuality in the same-sex dating pool.
Speaking on the Team Deakins podcast this week, the actress reflected on her 'first intimate experiences' in life, revealing that the majority of them were enjoyed 'with girls'.
For those in need of a reminder, 50-year-old Winslet is currently married to Richard Branson's nephew Edward Abel Smith, having wed the business boss in New York in 2012 before welcoming a son, Bear, now 12, together.
In the years prior, however, she enjoyed a short first marriage to painter Jim Threapleton, marrying him at her family's local church in 1998 before welcoming a daughter, award-winning actress Mia, now 25, in 2000.
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Between her divorce from Threapleton and marriage to Abel Smith, she was briefly married to director Sam Mendes, tying the knot on the island of Anguilla in 2003 and welcoming their son, Joe, now 22, the same year.
Of her romances - the ins and outs of which remained predominantly private at the time - she previously told WSJ Magazine: "No one really knows what has happened in my life. No one really knows why my first marriage didn't last; no one knows why my second didn't.
"And I'm proud of those silences."
As we say, however, despite only having dated (and married) men since she sky-rocketed to stardom in the mid 90s, during her teenager years, she claims she 'wasn't particularly evolved in either direction'.
Her intimate confession was made whilst looking back on her 1991 role in biographical drama Heavenly Creatures, in which she and cast-mate Melanie Lynskey starred as teen friends obsessed with one another.
To get into the role, Winslet revealed this week, she reflected on the relationships she had with women in her younger years, claiming these inspired the 'really intense connection' she and Lynskey shared on-screen.
“I’ll share something I’ve never shared before," she began during this week's podcast. "Some of my first intimate experiences as a young teen were actually with girls.
"I’d kissed a few girls, and I’d kissed a few boys, but I wasn’t particularly evolved in either direction."
Winslet went on to admit: "At that stage in my life, I certainly was curious, and I think there was something about the really intense connection that those two women had that I profoundly understood.
"I was so immediately sucked into the vortex of that world they were in that obviously became horrendously damaging to both of them, and they had huge insecurities and vulnerabilities."
