Scotland’s former first minister has addressed rumours about her sexuality
BY LUCY CHUNG, IMAGE BY FLICKR / First Minister of Scotland
Scotland’s former first minister has revealed all in her new memoir, Frankly, and a related ITV interview.
The former first minister was in office from 2014 to 2023, when she resigned and announced that she would not be running as an MSP in 2026.
Her new memoir, Frankly, is set to be published on Thursday, 14 August and will be an honest insight into the “person beyond the politician”. Sturgeon “recounts her journey from working-class Ayrshire to the steps of Bute House [the first minister’s official residence]” in this tell-all book.
In the first year of her role, Holyrood voted to legalise same sex marriage, something Sturgeon attributed to one of the proudest moments of her career. She continued to prove herself as an ardent supporter of the LGBTQIA+ when she tried to instate the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which was blocked by the then Conservative government in Westminster.
In an exclusive report, The Times shared extracts from Sturgeon’s memoir. In one, she discussed her sexuality, specifically surrounding an internet rumour that she had a “torrid lesbian affair” with French diplomat, Catherina Colonna.
“Normally, I wouldn’t have known [or] cared about wild stories from the darker recesses of social media, and, if this one had stayed there, it would have been easy to ignore. But, by late 2019, it was being openly talked about,” Sturgeon wrote, adding that family and friends were being asked about the allegations.
She said that many of those creating these stories viewed labels like lesbian as an insult, but for her it was “water off a duck’s back”, sharing, “Long-term relationships with men have accounted for more than 30 years of my life, but I have never considered sexuality, my own included, to be binary. Moreover, sexual relationships should be private matters.”
ITV news questioned her further on this comment, and she replied: “It’s just my view of the world and life and the way people are. If you’re about to ask me if I am making some big revelation: no. Am I putting labels on myself, no.”
When asked if the public could see her in relationships with women in the future, Sturgeon shared that she is freshly divorced and not “rushing into a relationship with anyone”.
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