Ayesha Madon in ‘Heartbreak High’ Photo: Lisa Tomasetti / Courtesy of Netflix
Australian actor Ayesha Madon has come out as bisexual.
The 26-year-old star of Netflix’s teen dramedy Heartbreak High opened up for the first time about her sexuality in a recent interview with U.K.-based LGBTQ+ outlet Gay Times.
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“I only properly admitted, out loud, that I was bisexual two or three years ago,” Madon revealed. “It feels recent.”
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“It’s pretty interesting watching myself be attracted to [girls],” she continued. “My first kiss was with a girl. I’ve actually never spoken about my sexuality before in anything, so this is pretty new.”
The actress and singer, who released her latest single, “Eulogy,” this spring, explained that that first kiss was with a girl in her acting class when she was 11.
“I remember she was chewing gum and in order to kiss her I had to pretend that I wanted to try the gum!” Madon recalled. “We kissed and it was amazing.”
Seeing queerness increasingly normalized in the years since, Madon explained, gave her the courage she needed to feel more comfortable in her sexuality. At the same time, she added, “Sometimes I feel like I’m a fake queer person because I’m not massive on queer culture. Sometimes, I feel that liking girls is not enough.”
Gay Times writer Zoya Raza-Sheikh noted that everyone discovers their sexual orientation differently, with some women — like out R&B singer-songwriter Kehlani — turning to the infamous Lesbian Masterdoc, a 30-page document meant to prompt readers to question their sexuality and the influence of compulsory heterosexuality.
“When I was growing up, I felt myself being conditioned or gaslighted into thinking that I was straight,” Madon responded. “I look back now at all these signs that I’ve had crushes on girls my whole life but in my head, I was like ‘Oh, that’s just nothing!’”
Madon went on to deliver a message to the LGBTQ+ community — one that she said is aimed squarely at herself as well: “My pride message is, there is no right or wrong way to be a queer person.”
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