I’m dating a woman says Sting’s rock ’n’ roll daughter
UNTIL now she has preferred to keep quiet about her sexuality and let her music do the talking.
But yesterday, Sting’s daughter opened up about her private life and revealed she has been in a lesbian relationship for two years.
Discussing her sexual orientation for the first time, 25-year-old Eliot Sumner said she had ‘never come out’ to her friends and family because they had always known she was gay.
‘They knew already. So I didn’t need to. I’ve never come out to anyone. My friends always knew and I always knew,’ she told Evening Standard magazine.
The singer said she is in a long-term relationship with 24-year-old Australian model Lucie Von Alten, who is the subject of some of the songs on her soon-to-be released second album, Information.
Miss Sumner, who is the third of Sting’s four children with Trudie Styler, also said she does not believe in ‘gender labels’, and shuns the glamourous outfits associated with fellow female artists Beyonce and Taylor Swift in favour of more casual clothes.
Asked if she identified as male or female, she replied ‘no’, adding that she simply sees herself as a ‘musician’.
‘I don’t believe in any specifications. I think forever I was trying to figure out maybe ... what I am,’ she said. ‘ But I don’t think anyone should feel pressured to have any kind of label or tag on them. We should treat everybody the same.
‘Me, I don’t like to be put down to a specific thing. We’re all human beings.’
Miss Sumner, who shares a flat with Miss Von Alten in London’s Belgravia district, is one of a growing number of women in the public eye who do not conform to traditional gender identities.
Earlier this year 16-year- old model Lily-Rose Depp – the daughter of actor Johnny Depp and singer Vanessa Paradis – described herself as ‘sexually fluid’ on Instagram. She joined controversial singer Miley Cyrus, 23, supermodel Cara Delevingne, 23, and actress Kristen Stewart, 25, who have all made it clear their sexuality is complex.
It follows a recent poll that said half of all young people in the UK are not 100 per cent heterosexual.
Sting, 64, has six children with Trudie, 61, and ex-wife Frances Tomelty. He has previously said they will not receive much in inheritance from his £180million fortune, as he does not want ‘to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks’. He told Event magazine: ‘There won’t be much money left because we are spending it. We have a lot of commitments. What comes in we spend, and there isn’t much left.’
‘My family always knew I was gay’