Queen Latifah’s sexuality, or rather the lack of clarity about it, has always been something for the tabloids to talk about. And the talk was enormous earlier this year when she starred as bisexual blues icon Bessie Smith in her HBO biopic. At the time, Latifah, as usual, refused to open up about her sexuality. Now, she’s explaining why neither fans nor bloggers nor tabloids will ever hear a word from her about whom she’s bedding.
“I know what I’m doing in my private life, and I know what I’m not, and I know me. And people who are not privy to that don’t know; they don’t know what they think they know. This is Bessie’s story. It has nothing to do with my life. There’s a difference for me between being honest and sharing my business with people who don’t need to know my business. So why would I start doing anything differently now because of ‘Bessie’?” Latifah explained in a new interview for Variety.
Although Latifah refuses to open up about her sexuality, she explains that she understands why people talk about it so much.
“I think it’s human nature. People have curiosity about people’s sexuality, because we’re curious about sex. I think the problem is we don’t talk about it enough. We act like sex is bad sometimes. We act like love is bad sometimes, or makes you weak somehow,” Latifah said.
To be fair, it’s not just an issue of being interested in sex. Fans have also had their interest piqued because of a number of photos of Latifah in intimate settings with a few of her alleged girlfriends.
However, Latifah explains that she tries not to focus on what the tabloids are saying about her.
“At some point I told all my friends, ‘Don’t come to me with negative stuff in a magazine.’ Let them write whatever they want to write. I can’t control it,” Latifah said.
Although Latifah has gotten used to tabloid talk about her sex life, she says there’s one area of her life where she refuses to let the tabloids pry.
Don’t write about her family. “Then I’m ready to not only sue you, but put a knuckle sandwich in your mouth. That’s where my Jersey roots come out!” Latifah said.
