Actress Rosario Dawson is adding intrigue to rumors about her sexuality.
In an interview with Bustle, the 40-year-old star of “Briarpatch” clarified a 2018 Instagram post in which she paid homage to the LGBTQ community during Pride month. Many fans read between the lines and assumed that the social-media update was, in effect, her coming out.
Dawson — who has been in a relationship with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) since, she said, October 2018 — told the women’s website, “People kept saying that I [came out] . . . I didn’t do that. I mean, it’s not inaccurate, but I never did come out come out.”
She added, “I mean, I guess I am now.”
While she did not elaborate on how she identifies her sexuality, she clarified that she’s never actually been in a queer relationship: “I’ve never had a relationship in that space, so it’s never felt like an authentic calling to me.”
The Instagram post in question featured footage of rapper Chika singing “Proud,” a repurposing of Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.”
In the caption, Dawson posted the song’s lyrics: “I will not be ashamed. This is just who I am, and who I was meant to be. No mistakes . . . I’m proud.”
And the actress added her own message: “Happy pride month! sending love to my fellow lgbtq+ homies. keep being strong in the face of adversity. loud & proud. 🌈🤟🏾 here’s a lil throwbyke to last year. ✨.”
On dating Booker, she admitted the public scrutiny has been a challenge to navigate as she raises her daughter, Isabella, 17, whom Dawson adopted in 2014.
“It’s the first time I felt like I had to be responsible about my choice of love, which is a challenging thing to do,” she said. “If you fall in love, you fall in love. But there’s another aspect I had to consider: what this meant in [putting] a microscope on my family and particularly on my daughter.”
“But in each other I think we found our person,” she added.