Alanis Morissette, 52, comes out as pansexual in new admission
Alanis Morissette was a guest on a recent episode of the Handsome podcast, where the conversation turned to her back catalog.
The singer is currently in the middle of her Los Angeles residency, Butterfly with a Machete, a blend of music and storytelling.
During the discussion, the 52-year-old came out as pansexual.
The show is hosted by lesbian comedians Tig Notaro and Fortune Feimster, along with non-binary screenwriter Mae Martin.
Advert
Feimster had told her, "I'm sorry for the men that hurt you, but I'm not sorry for the songs that came from it," and went on to ask, "Did it make you want to be a lesbian at any point?"
Morissette replied straight away: "I'm pansexual, so yeah." Taken aback, Notaro asked, "Wait, you're not really pansexual, are you?" The singer, a mother of three, nodded and said, "I am," before Martin added, "Me too!"
Pansexual is the term for someone who can feel romantic, emotional or sexual attraction irrespective of a person's gender identity or biological sex.
Bisexuality, by contrast, refers to attraction to both males and females, whereas pansexuality also extends to transgender, non-binary and other gender nonconforming people.
Morissette has also been open about previously struggling with love addiction and sex addiction, which she put down to being an empath.
Who has Alanis Morissette dated?
Morissette tends to keep her romantic life private.
Her past partners include Full House actor Dave Coulier, actor Dash Mihok and attorney Tom Ballanco, and she married rapper Mario Treadway, known as Souleye, in 2010.
The couple share two sons and a daughter, aged between 15 and six.
"There are just so many qualities in him that were slam-dunky," she told UK newspaper The Sunday Times. She added, "If I would talk about something on a date, typically the person would look at me quizzically like I was strange. It was the complete opposite with Souleye. He had zero desire to clip my wings."
She dated actor Ryan Reynolds in 2002, and the couple were engaged for three years before splitting in 2007.
Reynolds began dating Scarlett Johansson two months after the split and married her 18 months later, before the pair divorced in 2011.
Why did Alanis Morissette's Howard Stern interview go viral?
In 2008, Morissette discussed her split from Reynolds in an interview with Howard Stern.
The interview went viral as she tried to laugh off probing questions about her sex life, and she admitted she had needed therapy five days a week to get over the heartbreak.
"Therapy's not about the guy... It's about me. It's not about the guy," she said when Stern raised it.
When Stern asked whether Reynolds was the type to move on quickly after falling for someone new, she replied, "I can't speak for him, I have no idea."
Reflecting on the interview in June, she said, "It felt like the ongoing normalisation of me being invisible."
She added that she would react very differently to such intrusive questions now, saying, "I have a million questions I could ask back that would be equally inappropriate."
Thomas Bamford
