Jann Arden has reflected on the moment she realized her sexuality was fluid.
“I was probably 18 or 19 – so, pretty late in the game because I’d had boyfriends in high school – and in my first year in college, I remember kissing this girl named Leslie,” she told Richard Burnett in an interview published in Fugues. "I was so enamoured with her. And I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, there’s an option!’
“My whole world just opened up exponentially.”
Arden, who kicks off a cross-Canada tour in Moncton on May 16, said she fully embraces her sexual identity.
“I am so glad to be me,” the 60-year-old singer, actress, author and podcast host said. “I’m so glad that I can be part of a community that is talented, brave and resilient. I am very proud to be a queer person.”
LISTEN: The Jann Arden Podcast
Arden acknowledged she didn’t talk much about her sexuality while her music career was at its peak. “I wasn’t trying to hide anything,” she explained. “I was just really private. This has nothing to do with my music.”
In 2000, Leah McLaren of The Globe and Mail asked Arden if she is gay. “It's a very unfair question and one that I've never been asked before,” the singer replied. “My sexuality has no place in what I'm doing. Let's just say there are a million shades of grey.”
But, in interviews promoting the launch of her comedy series JANN in 2019, Arden spoke more openly about her sexuality.
“I’m a fluid person, I always have been,” she told David Friend of The Canadian Press. Arden said she chose to keep her romantic relationships private out of respect for her partners.
“I was very mindful of their lives, and sometimes it was well-known people,” she explained. “If it would’ve been my decision like, I don’t care, but when you have a person asking you… I honoured that.”
Arden told The TV Junkies that same year that she never thought of her personal life as a big secret. “I just quietly went about my work and my life,” she told Bridget Liszewski. “I was never ‘in’ anywhere. Every single person that I know and work with knew my life. I am a fluid person. That’s how I was born. That’s the way I’ve lived my life.”
Arden told Bill Brioux in a chat for Zoomer: “I certainly consider myself a fluid person … I wouldn’t even say bisexual, I’m very person-specific.”
JANN airs on CTV, whose parent company owns this website. The Jann Arden Podcast is an iHeartRadio original production.