‘I feel more comfortable in myself than I have in a long time’: Emma Corrin discusses gender identity

‘I don’t know where my gender exploration is going to go,’ actor says

Saman Javed
Sunday 16 October 2022 11:31 BST
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The Crown’s Emma Corrin thanks ‘compassionate’ Princess Diana in Golden Globes acceptance speech

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Emma Corrin has said they feel “more comfortable” in themselves than they have in “a long time” since quietly coming out as non-binary in 2021.

The Lady Chatterley’s Lover actor said they feel “very, very lucky” that their parents had been supportive of the decision.

In a new interview with The Times, Corrin also opened up about how their first queer relationship had helped them understand why they had long felt at odds with their gender.

“I’ve been very, very lucky,” Corrin said of their supportive parents.

“I don’t know where my gender exploration is going to go and I don’t really want to think about it. I just know that I feel more comfortable in myself than I have in a long time.”

Corrin came out as queer in April 2021, following a photoshoot with Pop Magazine. Sharing photographs on Instagram at the time, Corrin wrote: “Ur fave queer bride.”

The actor quietly updated their pronouns to they/them in June of last year. In July 2021, Corrin shared a photograph of themselves wearing a chest binder, and said they are embracing a “new” and “intimate” journey.

Corrin said people on set are “normally quite good” at respecting Corrin’s new pronouns.

“It’s half and half. People are normally quite good at it. But pronouns are a strange thing in themselves.”

“It’s a weird little bit of language that comes to mean so much, and really struggles to reflect anyone’s true feeling of self,” they said, adding that the correct use of pronouns matters less around people who know them well, because “it’s about feeling seen”.

Shortly after updating their pronouns, Corrin spoke of how their gender identity journey had “lots of twists and turns and change”.

Speaking to The Times, Corrin said their first queer relationship had formed a pivotal part of that journey. The relationship felt “like being born a bit”, Corrin said.

“Opening my eyes to this whole other way of life that felt so right. And so beautiful. And in quite a terrifying way it called into question everything I’d been assuming about myself and about the way I loved people before and how I felt.”

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