FKA Twigs hates that people thought she was "odd-looking" until she started dating Robert Pattinson.
The 31-year-old singer and dancer split from her former fiance Robert in 2017 and is annoyed that people needed a man to "validate" her beauty.
She told The Guardian’s Weekend magazine: "People thought I was quite odd-looking, until a white male validated my beauty. That’s frustrating and I still don’t accept it. But if I sing really well, you can’t question that. If I dance well, you can’t question that. If I express myself honestly, or if I’m pole dancing or wushu-ing excellently, you can’t question that. I’ve never felt more beautiful because I’ve never been more skilled. Everything else is ephemeral."
And Twigs revealed she named her new album ‘Magdalene’ because of the way Mary Magdalene has been remembered as a prostitute, when she was actually a healer and mystic .
She explained: "An incredible woman who was always in the shadow of a man. I can relate."
Twigs also explained that her sexuality and creativity are linked.
She said: "My sexuality tank and my creativity tank are the same tank, which is great, but also quite frustrating."
"I think that, in society, as a woman, you can be this beautiful creature and you want to be that for yourself, but there’s also a part of you that is doing it for the approval of the opposite sex. And that can lead you to feeling, ‘Am I good enough? Have I done enough?’
"I feel like I’ve been indoctrinated to feel like when I’m with a man, things are better, regardless of whether they are or not. I’ve been made to feel like, if I’m with a man, then I’m doing the right thing, I’m validated, I have a tick to my name. And even though I don’t really believe that, because I’m intelligent and I understand things, it’s somewhere inside me."
Twigs and Robert split in 2017 and she admitted that it was around this time in her life that everything imploded.
She said: "It felt like I’d made this ornate golden birdcage, and everything was so intricate – like tapestries and beading and beautiful wirework. And I stepped in and I locked the door and I was like, oh my gosh, this is actually a nightmare.
"You have family and friends, and you have adult things, like where you live and bills and stuff like that, then your health, maybe your relationship… Everything was in complete turmoil. The only thing that didn’t get smashed or shaken was one or two great friends."
And Twigs was also dealing with health problems at the time, which she initially feared was cancer, but which turned out to be fibroids, hormonal growths on her uterus.
She explained her fears to her stepfather, where she said she told him: "OK, I f**ked up. I have some terrible thing in my stomach and it’s really big and I must have stomach cancer and I’ve not told anyone and I just don’t think there’s any coming back."
FKA Twigs: ‘People needed Robert Pattinson to validate my beauty’
