Rebel Wilson has a heartfelt message for other “late bloomers” like herself.
In a new interview with People, the Pitch Perfect star, opened up about losing her virginity at the age of 35, which she also discusses in her upcoming memoir, Rebel Rising.
The 44-year-old said she had felt so “embarrassed” by the subject in the past that she even lied to her friend and told her she had lost her virginity in her 20s.
“There was one vague time, I think I told my best friend, ‘Oh, yeah, I just did it to just get it over with when I was like 23,’” Rebel recalled. “Just to really avoid the questions.”
The Australian actor went on to admit that she used to avoid discussing her virginity like the plague.
“Normally I would just leave the room when the conversation was happening,” she continued.
“And then the people that said, ‘Oh, at 24, it’s so late.’ And then I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Oh, my God, my number’s 35. What the hell? I’m going to look like the biggest loser.’”
Rebel then spoke up about how becoming sexually active later in life should be normalised so younger people don’t feel “pressure”.
“People can wait till they’re ready or wait till they’re a bit more mature,” she shared. “And I think that could be a positive message. You obviously don’t have to wait until you’re in your 30s like me, but you shouldn’t feel pressure as a young person.”
Rebel, who welcomed her first child, Royce Lillian, via surrogate in 2022 with her now-fiancée designer Ramona Agruma, explained why she “probably would’ve” explored her sexuality more if she “had been born 20 years later”.
“I just knew I was attracted to men, and that was the normal thing,” Rebel said.
“And so when I started opening myself up probably more after my father’s death and realising, oh, even though I’d seen marriage as a terrible thing and waste of time, I started opening myself up to that.”
“And then only years later, meeting women and having feelings for a woman, and that, I just think it’s a sign of where society kind of was,” she added.
Rebel noted in a separate interview with People back in February 2023 that she never believed she was “100 percent straight”.
“I don’t quite know how to define my sexuality, but I do know there’s a lot of people out there that don’t want to totally define it either,” she added.
Rebel Rising is slated for release on 2 April.