5 Celebs Who Have Been Open About Being On The Asexuality Spectrum

Like all sexuality, asexuality isn't just one thing. While people tend to think it simply means that someone doesn't have a desire for sex, it's far more complicated than that and looks different to different people. In fact, on the asexuality spectrum, you'll find such orientations as demisexual, greysexual, and queerplatonic — all of which are unique in their own way. Someone who is asexual, also known as an "ace," could have absolutely no interest in sexual activity or very minimal interest in it, but at the same time, could feel attraction to someone for reasons not necessarily linked to sex.

"A common misconception is that ace people don't feel arousal or ever have sex," sex educator and LGBTQIA+ sex expert Laura Clarke tells Cosmopolitan. "Attraction, desire, and arousal are all very different things. Ace people may indeed feel arousal, but this is not necessarily triggered by attraction to another person ... [they] may masturbate, and lots of ace people will also have sex for numerous reasons such as procreation, intimacy, or even because their partner is allosexual, and they enjoy giving them pleasure."

According to The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, roughly 1% of the population is asexual. So, while it's not particularly common, there's still a lot of asexual people out there. Some of whom may surprise you. 

For Gen Xers and elder millennials, Janeane Garofalo solidified herself as an essential part of the 1990s, playing Vickie Miner in 1994's "Reality Bites" and then Abby Barnes in 1996's "The Truth About Cats & Dogs." Interestingly, during the filming of both those movies, Garofalo was married and had no idea. It wasn't until 2012 that the feminist icon realized her drunken, joke marriage to then-comedy writer and producer Robert Cohen in the '90s was legit.

"We got married drunk in Vegas ... We dated for a year, and we got married at a drive-through chapel in a cab," Garofalo told The New York Post in 2012 (via CBS News). "[We thought] you have to go down to the courthouse and sign papers and stuff, so who knew?" That appears to pretty much be the beginning and end of Garofalo's relationships.

In a 2019 episode of the "Dyking Out" podcast, Garofalo shared that she was asexual. "The reason I say I'm asexual is my libido has always been incredibly low," Garofalo said. "I never have been particularly driven by sex ... I could take it or leave it." In the same episode, Garofalo called herself an "asexual atheist."

Although Marilyn Monroe is one of the most iconic sex symbols of all time, it turns out that she wasn't exactly a sexual person in her personal life. According to excerpts from her unfinished autobiography, "My Life," Monroe didn't have much interest in sex — something which she plainly wrote in one passage about her first husband James Dougherty.

"I was completely faithful to my overseas husband, but that wasn't because I loved him or even because I had moral ideas," wrote Monroe, per GCN. "My fidelity was due to my lack of interest in sex." In other collected notes, Monroe questioned "if the whole world was crazy, whooping about sex all the time." Then she realized that maybe she was different and tried to figure out a label that fit her indifference to sex. "And when I started reading books I ran into the words 'frigid,' 'rejected,' and 'lesbian.' I wondered if I was all three of those things," Monroe wrote. 

Monroe also reportedly had relationships with women, including her acting coach, Natasha Lytess, who claimed that Monroe hated sex. So, maybe Monroe was bisexual or pansexual as well. For some people, like those who are abrosexual, their sexual identity changes throughout their life, so it's possible Monroe could have identified with all of these sexualities at varying points.

In early 2024, former Disney star Piper Curda was asked when she realized asexuality was an aspect of her identity. In true Gen Z form, Curda took to TikTok to answer the question, explaining that she began to understand she was different from her friends in high school, when everyone started talking about sex all the time. She still wasn't aware asexuality existed, however.

"The big 'aha' moment for me was when I went through a really horrific breakup a few years back, and I was single for the first time in my adult life, like since I was 18," Curda said in the video. "I had a lot of things to figure ... up to that point, I also hadn't really come to terms with my attraction to females. It was a very simultaneous 'coming to Jesus' moment — that's a funny way to put it — of realizing that I was both asexual and biromantic. I think one informed the other a lot and vice versa."

Not to be confused with bisexuality, someone who is biromantic is romantically — not necessarily sexually — attracted to more than one gender. This means they can be attracted to cisgender women and men, as well as transgender and non-binary folks, or those who identify as agender. 

Of all the celebrities who are open about being on the asexuality spectrum, model and activist Yasmin Benoit has been one of the most vocal: especially in what her asexuality looks and feels like to her. She has also advocated for greater inclusion of asexual people in the LGBTQ+ community. 

In 2021, Benoit told The Guardian that it was around puberty she realized she wasn't feeling the same as other people her age. She came out as asexual in her teens. "I don't want to have sex with anybody and I probably won't ever have sex," Benoit said, adding that she does masturbate. "Our society is increasingly hyper-sexualized and that can make it particularly alienating for asexual people who don't have those feelings, or don't want to live that life."

In an effort to shut down the stigma surrounding asexuality, Benoit created the #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike hashtag that she uses regularly on social media. We can also thank Benoit for International Asexuality Day (April 6), which she co-founded in 2021. In June 2023, Benoit was the first out asexual person to be the grand marshal for New York City's Pride March. "I'm going to make a really great statement and hopefully set the motions in gear for more prides to be blatantly inclusive," Benoit told The Independent in 2023 about the grand marshal honor.

As one-quarter of legendary indie band the Pixies and the lead singer of The Breeders, Kim Deal has always been the epitome of cool. She's also someone who, aside from one short-lived marriage in the 1980s, has never really been linked to anyone romantically. Still, she's apparently attractive to both gay men and lesbians, said interviewer Jenny Stewart in a 2009 Q&A, asking if Deal has a "gay bone" in her body.

"You know what? I'm just so...asexual, I wish I had a gay bone," said Deal. When Stewart asked if she found her attractiveness to the LGBTQ+ community "weird," Deal said, "I can see the lesbian thing, but like, then again, I don't really know because I have no idea what attracts people."

In 2017, Deal told Marc Maron on his podcast, "WTF With Marc Maron," that the reason she and her twin sister, Kelley, chose to name their band The Breeders was because they thought it was funny and ironic. "Back in the late '80s, there was so much sh** given to gay people, but at the same time gay people thought heterosexuality was disgusting, and I loved that," Deal told The Gentlewoman in 2018.