Billie Eilish has addressed her response to being “outed” last November by Variety, admitting that she overreacted.
The Grammy-winning singer, 22, made headlines after briefly mentioning her attraction to women in a cover story with the entertainment magazine.
The next month, on the red carpet for Variety’s Hitmakers event, a reporter asked Eilish if she meant to “come out”.
“No, I didn’t, but I kinda thought… wasn’t it obvious?” the “What Was I Made For?” singer responded. “I just didn’t realise people didn’t know.”
Asked about the reaction to her comment, the “Bad Guy” singer said: “I saw all the articles [and] was like, ‘Oh, I guess I came out today… ok cool.’
“But it’s exciting to me because I guess people didn’t know, so it’s cool that they know… I am for the girls.”
Eilish later made an Instagram post accusing Variety of “outing” her on the red carpet.
“Thanks Variety for my award and for also outing me on a red carpet at 11 am instead of talking about anything else that matters i like boys and girls leave me alone about it please literally who cares,” she wrote.
Reflecting on her strongly worded Instagram caption in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Eilish confessed that she “overreacted”.
“Who f***ing cares?” she said. “The whole world suddenly decided who I was, and I didn’t get to say anything or control any of it. Nobody should be pressured into being one thing or the other, and I think that there’s a lot of wanting labels all over the place. Dude, I’ve known people that don’t know their sexuality, or feel comfortable with it, until they’re in their forties, fifties, sixties. It takes a while to find yourself, and I think it’s really unfair, the way that the internet bullies you into talking about who you are and what you are.”
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Of her quotes on the red carpet, she added: “What I said was funny, because I really was just saying what they’ve all been saying.
“I know everybody’s been thinking this about me for years and years, but I’m only figuring out myself now.”
Elsewhere in the long-ranging interview in promotion of her new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, dropping on 17 May, Eilish credits the second track on the record, “Lunch”, with helping her come to terms with her sexuality.
“I wrote some of it before even doing anything with a girl, and then wrote the rest after. I’ve been in love with girls for my whole life, but I just didn’t understand – until, last year, I realised I wanted my face in a vagina,” she said.
“That song was actually part of what helped me become who I am, to be real.”
