'I just can't do that' Kristen Stewart was advised to hide female relationships to better her career
Twilight star Kristen Stewart has told how she was advised by people she has "loved and trusted" not to hold her partner's hand in public if she wanted to better her career, but she went against the warnings because she refuses to "live a partial life".
Kristen Stewart was advised to avoid holding her partner's hand in public if she wanted to better her career.
The 35-year-old actress married her screenwriter wife Dylan Meyer in April 2025, and she has recalled how some people she "loved and trusted" encouraged her to avoid any public displays of affection with a fellow woman.
However, Kristen went against the advice, because she refuses to "live a partial life".
Asked on ABC News Live Prime Time With Linsey Davis about why she addressed her sexuality on a 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live - when she announced she was "so gay, dude" - Kristen said: "It was less about sharing the details of my relationship and more so acknowledging that there are people that don't get full access to being alive because they're hiding.
"I've experienced perspectives [and] I've had conversations with people I've known, loved and trusted and still do, who thought, 'Your career would go better if you didn't go outside holding your girlfriend's hand.'
"And I was like, 'So you want me to live a partial life? And you want me to uphold, perpetuate and sustain a system that excludes people?' And I just can't do that."
Kristen admitted one of the reasons she wanted be open about her sexuality is because she is keen to play a part in the world being a "more open and accepting place".
She added: "I didn't want to be part of a comic book. But what I didn't want to do was hide from the world we live in.
"I want to define it, I want to make it a more open and accepting place.
"And so I thought it was necessary for me to - I was already holding my girlfriend's hand in public.
"None of my relationships have felt guarded because I didn't want people to know me. I want people to know me.
"I felt like they did, so I didn't really need to fill in the blanks. But at that point it felt like a statement that just might unlock other people's doors."
In December, Kristen told how being married to Dylan reshaped her sense of home and identity.
She told Esquire: "It’s so nice to have a family. It’s so nice to not be an unmoored individual.
"Dylan came into my life, and I immediately was like, 'It’s so important to handpick and curate the people that surround you.' "
