Cate Blanchett reveals “many” lesbian affairs

Academy Award-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett has revealed she’s previously had lesbian romances.

The 45-year-old star, who’s been married to playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton since 1997, opened up to Variety in a new interview.

Blanchett is promoting her upcoming movie Carol, about two women who fall in love with each other.

In the interview she was asked if the film is her first turn as a lesbian. Blanchett smiled and queried: “On film — or in real life?”

She went on to say that “yes”, she’s had relationships with women “many times”, but didn’t elaborate.

Set in the 1950s, Carol is directed by Todd Haynes and based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.

Blanchett plays a married woman who starts a romance with a younger department-store clerk (Rooney Mara). It premières at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May.

The actress explained that she didn’t define her character’s sexuality but that she “read a lot of girl-on-girl books from the period.”

Blanchett has won two Oscars for her acting, for 2004’s The Aviator and 2013’s Blue Jasmine.