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Lily Cole comes out as queer: ‘I need to acknowledge I am not straight’

Lily likes the openness of the queer world (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for NETFLIX)

Model Lily Cole has come out as queer, saying she needed to acknowledge that she is not straight.

The 33-year-old, who shares a five-year-old daughter Wylde with partner Kwame Ferreira, has largely kept her private life under wraps during her career. 

However, Lily has written about her sexuality in her new book Who Cares Wins: How to Protect the Planet You Love, as she stated that her queerness would be a crime in certain countries.

Lily wrote: ‘Just as we do not choose the circumstances and ancestral patterns we are born into, none of us choose the cultural norms and laws we inherit.

‘Had my mixed-race daughter been born in a different country, she would have been a crime. If I were living in another country today, my queerness would be a crime.’

Lily addressed this in an interview with the Sunday Times, saying that she liked the ‘openness’ of the word ‘queer’, because she thinks ‘all those boundaries are quite rigid’.

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus actress said: ‘I have lots of friends who identify as bisexual, lesbian or whatever, who also identify as queer. I’ve always been quite private about my private life, consciously, and I want to continue to be, so I don’t feel the need to be explicit. 

Lily shares a daughter with partner of nine years Kwame (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/ Getty Images for Elephant Family)

‘At the same time I feel the need to acknowledge that I am not straight.’

The star has previously been linked to Jude Law, David Gandy Bryan Ferry and

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and met Kwame while setting up the skill-sharing app Impossible.

The couple, who are both co-founders of the project, have been together since 2012, and they live together with their daughter in Portugal.

Lily ended up staying in Portugal during the pandemic but the family have decided to make the move permanent.

More: LGBTQ

The eco-campaigner tries to live sustainably, using solar panels and an electric car, and living on a mostly vegan diet.

However, she told the Times that they are not ‘perfect’, as she enjoys hot baths and her daughter is allowed to eat ‘the odd chicken drumstick’.

Lily was first scouted as a model aged 14 and went on to appear on the cover of British Vogue aged just 16.

During her career, she has modelled for Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Moschino, Rimmel London and Louis Vuitton, among other huge brands. 


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