Joe Lycett has spoken openly about his sexuality as he opens up on his relationship and his private life at home with his girlfriend.
The comedian, best known for his publicity stunts, appearances on several panel shows and his own TV show Late Night Lycett, recently appeared on a podcast and opened up about his sexuality.
Speaking on Bimini Bon-Boulash’s podcast The Pieces, Joe spoke about his partner ‘Denise’ revealing that he uses a pseudonym to keep her name out of the public eye.
‘So I’ve got Winston the cat, and my partner Denise. And, um, she’s not called Denise, but I don’t talk about her, because she has a job that she can’t be in the public eye,’ he said.
‘I call her Denise because she hates the name Denise, so, uh, I live with Denise.
Joe has spoken many times throughout his career about being pansexual, and once again discussed his sexual identity on the show with the former Ru Paul’s Drag Race star.
Joe elaborated: ‘Well, it’s interesting now being in a long-term relationship with a woman because loads of people are like, sorry what? There was a brief period when I was at school when I thought because I was attracted to men, I was gay, and then I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on.’
‘Then I use the term bisexual when anyone asks and I just want to give a quick answer because people understand that.
‘But I think the most accurate way of describing myself is pansexual, in that I’m not attracted to people, just because of their gender.
The comedian added that he sometimes struggled to explain his sexuality to ‘idiots’ as it’s more nuanced than fancying every person on earth.
‘I also don’t really know how it works because, I don’t know, how does it work? As in, I don’t know how it works in terms of like, explaining it to idiots. Because it is hard to sort of go, well, no, I am attracted to men sometimes, but not all men. And it’s not often to do with the fact that they are men.
He joked that more often it’s a ‘good torso’ or a ‘lovely arm’ he is interested in.
‘Often it’s like a good torso is enough, you know? The little abs. Yeah, that’s it. The lines. The torso is dangerous. A lovely arm. ‘
‘Yeah, it doesn’t matter what the gender or whatever. And I don’t know why that is, but that is how it is. It’s a strange one because to me that suggests that sexuality is not just man, woman.’
‘So the intellectual side of me goes it’s pansexual, which means all. So, that’s how I feel about myself.’
Joe added that ultimately it doesn’t matter as it’s nothing to do with anyone else: ‘And I don’t really care what anyone else thinks about it these days, because I just think it’s nothing to do with you.’
He then added that many people still assume he is gay because of his ‘camp’ television persona, adding that he himself finds the way he’s viewed challenging.
‘But I do think it’s interesting. A few years into a relationship with a woman and going like, I am a straight man now, that dresses like this. I am still struggling with it in different ways of course. And particularly because lots of people just presume I’m gay because I’m camp on telly.’