
JoJo Siwa (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
JoJo Siwa has said she felt “pressure” to describe herself as a lesbian after she came out.
The “Karma” singer made the comments in an interview for YOU Mag, a women’s magazine that comes with The Mail on Sunday, in which she discussed her career, identity and much-talked about relationship with former Love Island star-turned-influencer and TV presenter Chris Hughes.
Siwa met Hughes, who presents the horse racing on Channel 4, during their stint on ITV’s Celebrity Big Brother back in April, where they formed an intense bond that made people speculate whether it was platonic or something more.
At the time, Siwa was in a relationship with non-binary DJ Kath Ebbs and whilst on the show Siwa discussed gender identity and announced she was “switching letters” after realising she was not a lesbian but queer.

“I’m switching letters. I’ve dropped the L and I’ve gone to the Q, baby! That’s what I love about sexuality,” Siwa said at the time.
Speaking to YOU, Siwa said that when she came out when she was 17 she said she was pansexual because “I don’t care [about gender]” but admitted “then I kind of boxed myself in and I said: ‘I’m a lesbian.’ And I think I did that because of pressure.”
Addressing the pressure she said she faced, Siwa said it came from within the LGBTQ+ community itself.

“In a weird way, I think it came a little bit from inside the [LGBTQ] community at times,” she said.
“From people I know, from partners I’ve had. You just get put in this world where you feel like, because you now have said, ‘Oh, I’m a lesbian’, you have to be a lesbian. And the truth is, sexuality is fluid.”
After leaving the Big Brother house, Siwa dumped Ebbs at the reality show’s wrap party and she and Hughes were spotted together multiple times in the weeks that followed, with many pictures of them showing the pair cuddling and holding hands.
At this point, they remained firm that their relationship was platonic, even describing themselves as “platonic soulmates”.
At the beginning of June, Hughes shared a photo on Snapchat of the pair shirtless in bed, cuddling, alongside the caption: “Sleeepinnn beauty.”
Siwa then dedicated a performance of Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” during a show in London to Hughes, changing the lyrics to: “Chris Hughes’ Eyes”.

Following this, their relationship was confirmed in an interview with The Guardian.
“It’s not platonic any more,” Siwa said in the interview, “and it’s been a beautiful development, a beautiful connection, and I’m absolutely head over heels for him and he’s the same way.”
She also reaffirmed that she now identifies her sexuality as queer, saying the term “encompasses how I am, and who I am”.
“There’s a lot of different sexual identities. I think there’s nothing more beautiful than somebody discovering themselves,” she added.
How did this story make you feel?