Layla Taylor came out as bisexual in an empowering podcast episode on Monday.
“I’m gay and I’m bi and date women and men,” the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star told Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast listeners.
Taylor divulged during the conversation that she is currently “talking to” a woman, who kicked off their romance by “liking” one of her Instagram photos, but did not name-drop the person.
Taylor did call the mystery individual “emotionally aware” and “very patient,” adding, “She’s just been very understanding and letting me take this at my own pace because it is just still foreign to me and it is so new. [It’s the] level of understanding and just being there for me.”
As for why the Hulu personality chose to come out when she did, Taylor explained, “It’s just something that I honestly didn’t really know how to formally address for a long period of my life.”
The 25-year-old said she previously “underplay[ed]” her sexuality “for a long period” but was “finally in the era” of wanting to “show every part of Layla to the world.”
Taylor gushed, “I’m very proud now to be out.”
The reality star clarified that she has “always had these thoughts” — but “already stood out so much to” her peers as “being a little Black girl … in a very predominantly white area.”
She recalled, “I kind of laugh about it now because I would be watching shows like ‘Pretty Little Liars’ and I would watch, like, Shay Mitchell kissing a girl. I was like, ‘Wait, why is that hot?’”
Taylor, who “didn’t know if it was just a phase,” also wasn’t sure what exactly “those feelings” were due to not having “queer representation” around her.
“It wasn’t necessarily that I had … pressure to not do that,” she continued. “I just didn’t have people around me that modeled that.”
Taylor, notably, did not come out to her fellow “SLOMW” cast members before the podcast dropped.
“I feel like me coming out, it’s not really a text,” she explained. “I feel like I want to see them in person to let them know. So they might see this before and then I’ll talk to them in person the next time I see them.”
Taylor was married to Clayton Wessell, with whom she has co-parented sons Oliver and Maxwell since their 2023 split.
Since the former couple called it quits, Taylor has dated Cameron Jolly and Mason McWhorter, with both relationships documented on the reality show.
Read the full article here
