Billie Eilish Says Reporter 'Outed Her' During Red Carpet Event

To be perfectly clear, Eilish revealed that she was physically attracted to women during a cover story for Variety released on November 13.

“I’ve never really felt like I could relate to girls very well. I love them so much,” she said in the cover story. “I have deep connections with women in my life, the friends in my life, the family in my life. I’m physically attracted to them. But I’m also so intimidated by them and their beauty and their presence.”

Then, on Saturday, December 2 – nearly three weeks after that cover story – Eilish attended Variety’s Hitmakers event and was interviewed by journalist Tiana DeNicola.

“You felt like for a long time women didn’t like you,” DeNicola said in reference to Eilish’s statements in that cover story. “And when that came out, all the women were like, ‘We love her!’ How did that reception feel? Has your mind changed a little bit?”

Eilish responded, “I’m still scared of them [women], but I think they’re pretty.” Both Eilish and DeNicola shared a laugh, which prompted the journalist to bring up Eilish’s coming-out statement from the cover story.

“Billie, did you mean to come out in this story?” DeNicola asked.

“No, I didn’t,” Eilish replied. “But I kind of thought, ‘Wasn’t it obvious?’ Like, it’s kind of been… I didn’t realize people didn’t know. I just don’t really believe in [the concept of coming out]. I’m like, ‘Why can’t we just exist?’ I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I just didn’t talk about it. Whoops.”

DeNicola then moved on and asked Eilish about her upcoming album. “It’s very naturally going the way that it’s meant to go,” Eilish said. “I’m very curious to see how people feel about it.”

You can watch Eilish’s full red-carpet interview with DeNicola below.

There are a few things to unpack here. DeNicola first asked Eilish if her perception of “women hating her” had changed. The singer said that she’s still “scared” of women but thinks that “they’re pretty.” That answer prompted the Variety journalist to ask about the Variety cover story where Eilish first talked about being attracted to women, which isn’t a huge reach. When that topic died down, DeNicola proceeded to ask Eilish about her upcoming third studio album – steering the conversation away from talking about her sexuality.

All things considered, it’s a bit confusing to read Eilish’s Instagram post suggesting that the coming-out topic came out of nowhere, that she didn’t expect a Variety journalist to talk about a Variety cover story at a Variety red-carpet event, and that DeNicola didn’t ask her “about anything else that matters.”