Keke Palmer opened up about her sexuality on social media, telling her followers that she’s “almost 100% sure” she’s asexual.
The Nope star reflected on her Valentine’s Day in a February 16 Instagram post, writing, “I spent mine with my mom, sister and son. Then went to a colleague’s smashing birthday bash. Yea, I said smashing.”
Palmer added that, cheeky turn of phrase aside, “nothing romantic went down.”
“Crazy right! I’m so cute!” she continued. “But I like no one, and I’m almost 100% sure I’m asexual. I have no interest in anyone, but I wish I did!”
According to the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, being asexual means that you typically don’t experience sexual attraction to others or a desire to act upon sexual fantasies or desires. It’s also worth noting that “ace” is an umbrella term encompassing a number of sexual identities, such as demisexuals, who need to form an emotional connection with someone before experiencing sexual desire; and graysexuals, who experience diminished amounts of sexual attraction.
In a 2023 video for Them’s YouTube series Becoming, Keke Palmer shared that while she’s always been attracted to women, she resists the notion that queer people owe others an explanation of their identity and relationships. She remembered facing questions surrounding her sexuality after releasing the 2015 music video for her song “I Don’t Belong To You,” in which she ditches a neglectful boyfriend and shows up on another woman’s doorstep.
“People kept saying, ‘So are you coming out? Are you saying something?’” she said. “[And] I’m like, ‘You motherfuckers still didn’t get it. I’m not bound in my sexuality. I’m just doing me.’’ I think that hopefully people are coming around to that reality when it comes to the queer community. Why the hell do I need to declare to you who’s laying in my bed?”
While accepting an award for LGBTQ+ activism at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in April 2023, the multi-hyphenate told the crowd that “I always felt like I was a little bit of everything.”
“Since I was younger, I always questioned the boxes I was forced to be in and it starts with who you’re supposed to be as a child,” she continued. “You’re supposed to be as a Black person or whatever the background you are from… Then those walls just try to cave you in from every damn angle.”
Palmer concluded that “I’m truly so grateful to be seen in this room because I know I’m surrounded by people who know without a doubt what it’s like to be who you are in a world that tells you to be everything but yourself.”
This article originally appeared on Them.