British model Cara Delevingne has publicly come out as a role model after years of soul searching.
Delevingne openly talks about being pressured to get a “beard,” a fake male partner hide her sexual orientation. She claims that Harvey Weinstein pressured her to hide her sexuality in her early acting career, Weinstein told her if she was open about her sexuality, she wouldn’t get any roles and would not make it as an actress in Hollywood . Despite the pressure for her to get a “beard,” she did not follow through and chose to just hide her sexuality entirely.
Delevingne’s first notable public relationship was with St. Vincent between 2014 and 2016. She then dated Ashley Benson between 2018 and 2020. Shortly after, Delevingne come out as pansexual. She then started a relationship with her former schoolmate Minke, and they have since then been in a happy relationship. As of last month, Delevingne has clarified that she is a lesbian.
Reaching this point of clarity was a long journey, especially without immediate parental reassurance. Because of the generation gap, Delevingne’s paraents believed that having a lesbian daughter meant “they did something wrong” or failed their daughter in some way. Since she couldn’t get validation from her parents she turned to her older sisters who showed her immediate acceptance, support and unconditional love. Her sisters provided her a safety net while her parents slowly caught up to her reality.
While her journey is long from over, Delevingne has made many self-discoveries in the past decade. We celebrate her coming out and wish her a happy Pride!
Photo courtesy of social media
