Jameela Jamil has come out as queer.
The 33-year-old actress felt forced into opening up about her sexuality after she was slammed with criticism for joining the new TV show ‘Legendary’ – a competition focused on ballroom culture and voguing – as many people thought the panel should be exclusively made up of queer people to reflect the show’s themes.
Taking to her Twitter account, the radio presenter said: "This is why I never officially came out as queer. I added a rainbow to my name when I felt ready a few years ago, as it’s not easy within the south Asian community to be accepted, and I always answered honestly if ever straight-up asked about it on Twitter.
"But I kept it low because I was scared of the pain of being accused of performative bandwagon jumping, over something that caused me a lot of confusion, fear and turmoil when I was a kid.
"I didn’t come from a family with *anyone* openly out. It’s also scary as an actor to openly admit your sexuality, especially when you’re already a brown female in your thirties. This is absolutely not how I wanted it to come out.
"I’m jumping off this hell app for a while because I don’t want to read mean comments dismissing this. You can keep your thoughts."
The ‘Good Place’ actress recently said she’s not interested in "feeling beautiful" as she only ever feels like herself when she’s lying in her boyfriend’s arms.
She said recently: "I don’t ever really feel beautiful. Also, I’m not interested in feeling beautiful. I just like feeling like myself, which is normally when I’m lying in my boyfriend [James Blake’s] arms. I’m not interested in beauty terribly.
"I like fashion and make-up and I like playing with colours and I used to paint and so I think I find that quite fun, but yeah, I never really feel beautiful. I prefer to feel funny or smart or happy."
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender.
Jameela Jamil is queer
