Did Madonna come out on TikTok?
Madonna had been married to actor Sean Penn and director Guy Ritchie. Credit: Getty Images / Ethan Miller
Pop-star provocateur Madonna on Sunday unleashed a chorus of speculation about her sexuality after posting a TikTok video in which she seemingly comes out as gay.
The 5-second video shows a pink-haired Madonna lifting fuchsia-colored underwear over her head as on-screen text reads, “If I miss, I’m Gay!” She throws the garment, and it falls short of a trash can. The camera back on her, Madonna turns three-quarters, cocks her head with the trace of a smile and lifts one arm in a gesture open to interpretation.
"Did I just witness Madonna coming out, good for her," reads one comment from her 2.8 million TikTok followers. "What in the 80s is happening," reads another. "We are witnessing herstory," reads a third.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, 64, had been married to film star Sean Penn from 1985 to 1989, then to British filmmaker Guy Ritchie from 2000 to 2008. She had a child, Rocco, with Ritchie, and previously a daughter, Lourdes, with personal trainer Carlos Leon, in addition to four adopted children.
An advocate for the LGBTQ community since the height of AIDS in the 1980s, Madonna famously kissed singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on air at 2003's MTV Video Music Awards, and hip-hop star Nicki Minaj at the rapper's 30th birthday party in 2012. In her recent music video for "Hung Up on Tokischa," she frequently makes out with the titular Dominican rapper, born Tokischa Altagracia Peralta Juárez.
Madonna told the magazine The Advocate in 2019 that, "I think everybody has a bisexual nature. That’s my theory. I could be wrong." But in the same interview, she said her hinted-at lesbian relationship with actor-comedian Sandra Bernhard was a put-on.
"I love to [mess] with people," Madonna confessed. "Just as people have preconceived notions about gay men, they certainly do about gay women. So if I could be some sort of a detonator to that bomb, then I was willing to do that. It was really fun."
On Friday, two days before releasing the TikTok video, she had tweeted, "Artists are here to disturb the peace."
