X-Files star Gillian Anderson, 58, comes out as pansexual weeks after revealing teen relationship with 'older girl at school'

Gillian Anderson has revealed that she identifies as pansexual weeks after sharing that she had a 'secretive' relationship with an 'older girl at school' as a teen.

The 58-year-old X-Files actress - who is said to be in a relationship with The Crown creator Peter Morgan - opened up about her sexuality in a new interview with The Australian. 

Pansexuality is a sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity.

She told the publication: 'In my younger years, I was in relationships with women.'

Anderson went on to talk about her sexuality and how it has evolved after hearing about experiences from other women.

The actress said: 'I'm not a big flirter. I don't put it out there very much. I do hear of a lot of women around our age who are rediscovering their sensuality and their desire for sex.

'It certainly sounds like they're in the dating field. That they're having a lot of fun, a lot of opportunities, but also being approached on these apps by much younger men.'

She revealed that she became more sex positive after starring in Netflix series Sex Education over four seasons as she portrayed therapist and mother Jean Milburn as she said: 'It all came from that character.'

Anderson is a mother of three as she shares 31-year-old daughter Piper with ex-husband Clyde Klotz and had sons Oscar, 19, and Felix, 17, with former partner Mark Griffiths.

Weeks ago she detailed her 'secretive' teen relationship with 'an older girl at high school' as she opened up about her sexuality in a candid new interview.

The actress has previously spoken openly about having relationships with women in her past, saying that gender is irrelevant to her when connecting with someone.

Chicago-born Gillian has been married twice – first to production designer Clyde Klotz from 1994 to 1997, and then to documentary filmmaker Julian Ozanne from 2004 to 2006.

And since 2016 she has been in an on-off relationship with The Crown creator Peter Morgan, though has never publicly confirmed this.

In the interview with The Sunday Times last month, she opened up about her past after moving to the US from London when she was 11. 

She told the publication: 'One of my first relationships was with an older girl in high school. It felt secretive and illicit and wrong and we had to hide. Later on I had a boyfriend who found out and broke up with me.' 

However, she added that she didn't think she was gay because she'd 'had a couple of boyfriends'. 

She then explained: 'But I definitely felt I didn't have the language for it. Even later on when I had other relationships with women, I'm not sure I ever thought of them as being potentially for ever.'

Though she has never publicly confirmed her relationship with The Crown creator Peter, in the new interview she did say: 'The person I consider my life partner happens to be male.'

It comes after earlier this week Gillian revealed she couldn't believe it when she was voted the 'Sexiest Woman in the World' in 1996 – because it was the period she felt at her least sexy.

The actress was then one of the UK's biggest stars through her work on The X Files, but was suffering with crippling self-doubt as she struggled with raising her then two-year-old daughter as a single mother after splitting from husband Clyde.

Gillian reflected on the title in an essay about the secret to sex appeal, saying that she went through phases when she would wear deliberately provocative clothing.

Yet at the moment she was deemed to be at her peak 'sexy', she wasn't confident or comfortable in her body.

Gillian mused: 'In 1996 I was voted 'Sexiest Woman in the World' by FHM readers – a title that arrived with all the certainty of a cultural verdict. 

'How 'sexy' I felt inside – or indeed looked – when the accolade was announced is another story... The ludicrous irony, of course, is that when the 'world' declared me its sexiest woman, I felt anything but.'

Gillian continued to British Vogue: 'I was raising a toddler while working impossibly long days and at the time of the phone interview that accompanied the FHM article, I was in well-worn oversized flannel pyjamas while my daughter darted in and out of the room. 

'I had been single for a while, having split from her father, and I wasn't dating. I was shut down, self-protective and detached from my body, a state that was mirrored in my everyday attire. 

'The fantasy projected onto me bore no resemblance to my reality, despite the latex bodysuit and exposed midriff in the accompanying photoshoot. My life revolved around call sheets, line memorisation and motherhood.'

Gillian went on to note that three decades on she's feeling sexier than ever, noting: 'The most seductive thing any of us can wear is the quiet conviction that we belong exactly where we are.'