Alanis Morissette, 52, has publicly identified as pansexual, confirming it during an appearance on the “Handsome” podcast with co-hosts Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin.
The admission came up as the hosts discussed Morissette’s history of dating men. Feimster told her, “I’m sorry for the men that hurt you, but I’m not sorry for the songs that came from it,” then asked, “Did it make you want to be a lesbian at any point?”
“I’m pansexual, so, yeah,” Morissette replied.
Notaro pressed her on it: “Wait, you’re not really pansexual, are you?” Morissette confirmed, “I am.”
Notaro joked that Morissette should have opened the interview with that disclosure. “You’re supposed to come into the ‘Handsome’ podcast leading with, ‘I’m pansexual,'” Notaro said. Morissette answered, “You know, I like to leave it for the epilogue. I like to confuse people on the way out.”
The disclosure adds new context to a scene from the year 2000 that fans have long remembered. Morissette appeared in season 3 of “Sex and the City,” in the episode “Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl…,” playing a character named Dawn who kisses Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw during a game of spin the bottle.
Morissette discussed that scene in September during an appearance on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast, revealing she was the one who suggested the storyline to producers. “I reached out to them and I said, ‘Might it be a nice time for Carrie to experience a lesbian moment?’ And they said, ‘Why, yes. We were thinking the same thing,'” she said. “I think we literally had the same idea at the same time. That happens.”
She also described the kiss itself as “easy” and “buoyant.” “I do recall kissing her,” Morissette said. “It was very pleasant.”
Morissette has touched on questions about her sexuality before. In a 2008 interview with The Advocate, she said, “I think it’s a beautiful rite of passage for everyone to play with their sexuality at some point, so I did exactly that. And it was great!” She added, “I’ve felt love from the gay community since I was really young because all my friends were gay. There’s a passion, a presence, and a curiosity with a lot of gay people that I meet, and that aliveness is such a special quality to me.”
