Holland Taylor opens up about her relationship with Sarah Paulson in a new interview with The Advocate.
The 77-year-old and Paulson, 45, confirmed they were dating in 2015.
Taylor says, when asked why that was the right time for her to reveal she was in a relationship with a woman, “Well, I’m a very private person, just generally. I would be no matter what my life was, but I was not private in the sense of hiding. I lived my life in public. I think I was about 29 or 30 when I had my first relationship with a woman, but I didn’t talk about it per se. It would never have occurred to me to talk about my personal life in an interview anyway.
“When I started to be known, it was just a subject that never came up in a sense that no one would ask me. I don’t know why no one would ask me, but they didn’t. And I don’t know what I would have said. It’s so funny. I can’t really remember any anxiety about that. I had not been in a relationship for a very long time.”
RELATED: Holland Taylor Talks ‘Legally Blonde’ And Spending Quarantine With Sarah Paulson
Taylor adds of Paulson, “The relationship with Sarah became so public because she’s an enormous star and I was somewhat well known.
“It became a news event and so I wasn’t going to deny it. Do you see what I’m saying? Other relationships that I had have not been with famous people. No other relationship I had would become a news event in that sense. When once that happened, there was no way not to just speak about it.”
Taylor says she is not a fan of labels and keeping her sexuality a secret: “I’m more free talking about my personal life now because people do speak very personally in interviews. But when I was younger, I didn’t have a big public marriage or relationship with children and a big public life. I just lived my life normally. I wasn’t behind closed doors.
“It would never have occurred to me to talk about my personal life in an interview anyway.”
RELATED: Sarah Paulson Reveals The Surprisingly Modern Way She Met Girlfriend Holland Taylor
“Well, if you said, ‘What is your sexuality?’ I’d say I’m gay,” the actress says of her sexual identification. “I really don’t like the definitions. I just feel like I’m a person. It’s not the major defining thing of my life. It’s not defining. I’m a human being. That’s defining.”
