Actress Maria Bello revealed that she is in a lesbian relationship in a New York Times essay Dec. 1, making an appeal to be embraced for her own "modern family."
Bello, 46, who recently starred in a TV remake of Prime Suspect, wrote that she struggled with revealing to her 12-year-old son, Jackson, her relationship with a woman, Clare, who happened to be her closest friend. However, she also urged a broader definition of sexuality and love than what currently passes for social norms. Bello added that her other main relationships have been with menbut they weren't always sexual ones.
Bello doesn't label her identity, and writes about her discussions of love with her son: "So I would like to consider myself a 'whatever,' as Jackson said. Whomever I love, however I love them, whether they sleep in my bed or not, or whether I do homework with them or share a child with them, 'love is love.' And I love our modern family."
Bello spoke at the Human Rights Campaign dinner ion Philadelphia March 24, 2012. In those remarks in support of LGBT rights, she jokingly called herself a "lesbishian."
"As I was thinking about what to say tonight, I talked with my two best friends, Claire and Lolo," she said at the HRC event. "Claire and Lolo are lesbians, and I often think of them as the two closest friends and soul mates I have in the world. They are surely the two friends who really connect with me and nurture my spirit. Although I am not a lesbian, Claire and Lolo invented this word, lebishian, just to express the deep emotional connections that I and many women have with other women. So for lebishians everywhere, we are women who love women but don't sleep with them. If we must wear labels maybe that is a good starting point for me and a beautiful role to live."
She later added: "Even though I may proudly be the world's first lebishian, when we think about it, labels are really old-fashioned. Young people everywhere believe that labels are rigid, narrow and confining when we think of our emotional commitments and unconditional love. That is one of the reasons I remain an activist even more than an actor. The stage I love most is the real world, where we walk boldly and unscripted to create the world we hope to be."
Bello is also known for her roles in the films Coyote Ugly and A History of Violence, and the TV shows ER and Touch.
See www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/fashion/coming-out-as-a-modern-family-modern-love.html .