Patricia Velasquez, a Venezuelan
supermodel and mom who played Anck Su Namun in The Mummy and its sequel,
has come out as gay publicly.
In
a memoir, Straight
Walk: A Supermodel's Journey to Finding Her Truth, set for release on Feb.
10, the 44-year-old, who also appeared in The L Word and Arrested Development,
writes about how she hid her sexuality from her loved ones for years and dated
both men and women. The book was inspired by her and Maya, 8, the daughter she
shares with ex-partner Lauren, according to Yahoo!
Parenting.
"It's
very difficult to face your past, so I put off doing anything like this for a
long time," she told the outlet. "But as my daughter started growing
up and I was teaching her to be honest and proud, I knew it was time for me to
set an example—and that meant facing my truth. For me, living life with truth
and honesty is the one thing I want to make sure she understands."
"Gay
marriage wasn't legal when Lauren and I decided to commit to one another and
have a baby together," she wrote in her book. "The decision was an
easy one, not like when it had been presented to me before. It made sense.
Lauren was an amazing woman and I was excited to bring a life into the world
with her. The second we received confirmation she was pregnant, I felt like my
entire life had changed for the better."
Velasquez
is currently in a relationship with a woman named Ileanna, who is also from
Venezuela. She told Yahoo! Parenting they have been together for the past year.
In
her memoir, Velasquez wrote about several past partners. She said she was
"in love" with a woman named Sandra.
Comedienne
and Roseanne alum Sandra Bernhard, who came out as bisexual
years ago, had been linked together several times in the press but had
never confirmed a relationship.
In
a 1998 interview with The New York Times, Bernhard had mentioned Velasquez
by name while talking about several of her friends. In 2001 Velasquez
told Cinema.com,
"Look, she was a very, very important person in my life—and she still is.
She was a friend, she was like a mother to me, and also like my daughter
sometimes...Sandra is somebody that I have in my heart forever, because I
didn't even speak English when I met her, and she taught me so
much."
According
to The New York
Post, the two met backstage at a fashion show. In the book, she said
she realized she was "in love" with her a few months later, while she
was on a "Frida Kahlo-themed shoot" in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
In
her book, Velasquez wrote about how she had "successfully
hidden" her sexuality in her native Venezuela. She said she was inspired
to finally come out to her family, who were supportive, just before walking the
runway at a fashion show by world renowned French Haute Couture
designer Jean Paul Gaultier, around the same time The Mummy was
released, in 1999. At the time, she was dating a woman named Lisa.
"As
I sat there waiting to walk, I was feeling this great sense of pride thinking
about my journey to this moment, the only Latina in this massive show, excited
to be a part of something so amazing," she wrote. "Gaultier was a
genius but he was also doing exactly what he wanted to do. It made me realize
that I could be myself too. That was the moment, I decided right there. It all
just clicked suddenly. I turned to Lisa before I went out on-stage. 'I'm
ready.'"
News Credit: MSN
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