Somizi says he’s not gay but pansexual

Controversy magnet Somizi Mhlongo has revealed that he doesn’t actually identify as gay but is instead pansexual. 

The radio and TV personality and celebrity chef appeared on last week’s episode of The Braai Show With Cassper Nyovest.

As they prepared a potjie in the kitchen together, Somizi responded to questions about his sexuality and his daughter, 26-year-old Bahumi Madisakwane.

Cassper asked him to explain how, as a gay man, he’d fathered a child with actress Palesa Madisakwane when he was younger. “Are you fluid? I just want to be educated,” he asked.

“I’ve never been in the closet, first of all. I’ve always been me. So even the baby mama knows. When she came to me and said to me she liked me, I told her I was gay. She said I was lying and she tested me. I decided to go for it and that’s how it happened,” Somizi said.

“I was transparent from the onset. I hate always explaining myself. I am not gay, I am a pansexual,” he told Cassper who admitted that he didn’t know what the term meant.

“I am attracted to whoever I’m attracted to at the time. So even if I’m to meet a beautiful woman now, I’d date her,” Somizi said. He added that while he has no interest in having another biological child, he would consider adopting “beautiful Chinese kids.”

Pansexuality refers to a sexual orientation that is inclusive of all sexes and gender identities. People who are pansexual may be attracted to people of their own gender and of a gender that is different from their own, and also to people who identify as non-binary, trans or agender (not identifying with any gender).

Pansexuality came into the spotlight when singer and actor Janelle Monáe came out as pansexual in 2018. Internet searches for the term skyrocketed, also leading to “pansexuality” being named one of Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Year.

Somizi was recently in the news after a restaurant in Zimbabwe cancelled his paid appearance at its high-profile relaunch due to pressure from homophobic politicians and religious leaders who objected to his sexuality.

In August, Somizi was dropped as an Idols SA judge and a Metro FM host after South Africa was rocked by bombshell claims by his estranged husband, Mohale Motaung, that he’d been physically abused by the star. Somizi has denied the allegations, describing them as a defamatory smear campaign.