The star of UK smash-hit The Receipts Podcast is in her first WLW relationship, and we couldn’t be more obsessed
BY KATIE CHAMBERS, IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM (@MILENASANCHEZX)
Women all over the world have been in love with Milena Sanchez for years, and now we know she loves us back. The singer/songwriter and co-host of the award-winning podcast has had a hell of a year: her face has been plastered on billboards all over London, she’s released two hit singles, AND she’s fallen in love.
The Receipts, which Milena presents along with Tolani Shoneye and Audrey Indome, is one of the funniest and frankest podcasts around. Its slogan is “Unadulterated Girl Talk with No Filter”, but in terms of the podcast’s discussions about dating and love, it’s mostly been “Boy Talk”. (The queer-focused episodes they do have, though, are 10/10: Episode 52, “The Arts of Gyaldem ft. Dotty” is a great place to start.)
While Milena has always been open about her attraction to women, it’s played a relatively small part in her online persona until this year. But in 2023, everything changed, and it felt like a giant hug for the podcast’s queer fans.
It’s nothing short of beautiful to track Milena’s journey on the podcast over the last few months. Start with some episodes in late 2022 and work towards the present day, and you’ll hear the classic soft-launch of a happy first WLW relationship. In December, the girls hint at Milena being in love, in March there’s the odd she/her pronoun in relation to dating, and by spring the podcast is finally giving us some proper sapphic gushing.
Milena’s known and loved for being the most unfiltered host, whether she’s getting down to graphic sexual detail or delving into the trauma of her love life. But hearing her open up about romance and happiness in her own life is new, and it’s been a long-awaited joy for her listeners.
“It sounds cliche”, she smiled on an episode earlier this year, “But the moment I met my girl for the first time, I just knew. The way we both felt was crazy. We looked each other and just said ‘You look so familiar to me!’”
And then it kicked into high gear, as all great love stories do, with the mother of all hard launches on Instagram back in April. A photo of her sun-kissed embrace with her new girlfriend in Dubai melted queer hearts all over the world and had us wondering if this was the beginning of some out-and-out bisexual representation.
We weren’t disappointed. Milena has been glowing with pride all over the podcast, her social media, and Pride itself! Last weekend, she led a discussion called “Multisexual Media” at Bi Pride UK which explored bi identities in arts and pop culture alongside a panel of other bisexual creatives.
It was Milena’s first time onstage at a Pride event (a record-breaking Bi Pride by the way, with more attendees than ever before), and she went down a storm. One fan tweeted about the event: “As someone who was obsessed with The Receipts Podcast in uni, it makes my bi+ heart siiiiing to see Milena at Bi Pride UK this year.”
And that’s not all Milena’s done for the community this year. If you’re sick of dialling down your sapphic energy in nightclubs and raves, she’s got your back. Plus You Events, which she launched earlier this year, are women-only parties specifically designed to provide a safe space for WLW couples and singles. They’ve been selling out all over London, and although they’ve just ended the summer in style with a closing party, they’ve hinted on Instagram about upcoming events this autumn.
Milena has said that she created Plus You Events partly in response to her unpleasant experiences on nights out with her girlfriend, which brought her to tears. In an interview with ASOS, she explained just how vital women-only events were to her and the bi community as a whole: “It’s a space where you could just completely be you. It’s so important that these safe spaces are created. There’s nothing worse than having to pretend to be something that you’re not.”
“When I was able to whine with my girl, kiss my girl, hug her, hold her, and nobody was looking at me…I loved it.”
Despite being a notorious oversharer, Sanchez has kept the name of her new girlfriend private in order to keep their relationship out of the spotlight. (We’re not crying, you are.) But you can see the pair dancing, kissing and speaking Spanish all over TikTok. The LGBTQIA TikTok community are showing them love, and Milena’s showing it right back. “It makes me so happy when I see women loving women,” she smiled in one video. We feel you, Milena!
Hardcore fans of The Receipts will remember early episodes where Milena, in her mid-twenties, assured her listeners that she’d never be in a relationship with a woman. (We’ve all been there.) Now she’s 31, and things couldn’t be more different. Here’s hoping this is only the beginning of her love story and of bisexual representation on mainstream podcasts.
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