Holland Taylor Explains Why She and Sarah Paulson Went Public

Holland Taylor is having quite the moment right now. She is fresh off of her turn in Netflix's Hollywood and plays The Great Leader in the upcoming Bill and Ted Face the Music. This comes within the legacy of her longer career which has felt her presence in The Practice, Two and a Half Men, and The L Word. But in a recent interview, Taylor opened up about her personal life.

"When I started to be known, it was just a subject that never came up in a sense that no one would ask me," she explained of conversations surrounding her sexuality in a conversation with The Advocate. In 2015, after there had long been rumors, Taylor revealed that she was in a long-term relationship with a then-unnamed woman. "I don't know why no one would ask me, but they didn't."

That lack of questioning was perfectly acceptable to Taylor. As far as she was concerned, her sexuality "wasn't behind closed doors," but was instead something that she didn't feel comfortable discussing in an interview. But once she did open up to the public about her sexuality, people became curious about who she was seeing. And after much thought, the actress shared that as well.

"The relationship was with Sarah [Paulson] became so public because she's an enormous star and I was somewhat well-known," Taylor continued. "It became a news event and so I wasn't going to deny it. Do you see what I'm saying? Other relationships that I had have not been with famous people. No other relationship I had would become a news event in that sense. When once that happened, there was no way not to just speak about it." But now she has, and fans get to see glimpses of the pair's relationship on social media -- which is also where things got their start. Still, Taylor hadn't previously put an exact label on her sexuality.

"Well, if you said, 'What is your sexuality?' I'd say I'm gay," she told The Advocate. "I really don't like the definitions. I just feel like I'm a person. It's not the major defining thing of my life. It's not defining. I'm a human being. That's defining."

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