‘Is Jared Leto gay?’ Met Gala twinning with Alessandro Michele makes fans wonder

Jared Leto and Alessandro Michele delivered one of the 2022 Met Gala’s “most unexpected outfits”, Vogue writes, wearing matching outfits and looking uncannily identical. The pairing has set Met Gala viewers to wonder (again) about whether or not Jared Leto is gay – how has the actor fielded questions about his sexuality in the past, and does he have a girlfriend?

‘Is Jared Leto gay?’ has been asked before and it will be asked again

Jared Leto’s portrayal of gay characters onscreen has been so convincing, it seems, that people have wondered about the actor’s sexuality. 

He played Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club, and in 2020 he confirmed that he would be portraying Andy Warhol in an upcoming (and as yet unreleased) biopic. 

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He’s apparently addressed rumours about his sexuality by stating: “I’m not gay, but that rumour can’t be killed”.

The Little Facts adds that Jared Leto has denied being gay multiple times in multiple interviews. And yet, true enough, the rumour persists.

Who has he dated in the past, and is he in a relationship now?

According to Pop Sugar, Leto has been romantically linked to 11 famous women, including Cameron Diaz, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton and Lupita Nyong’o.

Digital Spy adds Lindsay Lohan and Scarlett Johansson to that list.

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The outlet reported in June 2006 that Leto had “claimed that he is gay” during an interview with an America Online reporter. He said he was as “gay as a goose”, and went on to compare himself to Morrissey, a singer Digital Spy says was “known for his vagueness about his sexuality”.

Leto’s publicist later clarified: “Jared was kidding”.

In August 2016, The Guardian reported on an interview with Leto in which the actor lamented the conservatism of the film industry. 

“We’re in an interesting time right now”, he said, “where people are exploring all kinds of different ideas of identity, not just masculinity or femininity.” 

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“For myself, I have never had a specific idea of masculinity. I think it’s OK just to be yourself and whatever that entails. You know, I’ve certainly never felt required to present myself in a certain way.”

Does Jared Leto have a girlfriend, and what is his relationship like with Met Gala partner Alessandro Michele?

Parade’s best guess as to who Jared Leto might be dating – if he’s dating anyone – is Valery Kaufman. She’s a Russian-born model.

His friendship with Alessandro Michele, however, is relatively well documented. Jared Leto and Gucci’s creative director attended the 2018 Met Gala together in “intricate Gucci ensembles” looking, Vogue wrote at the time, “as if they had walked straight out of a Renaissance-era painting hanging in the Uffizi gallery”.

And in 2019, Alessandro Michele shared a photo to his Instagram followers of him and Jared Leto, in a field, carrying boxes of greens and flowers. He captioned the picture: “My Solitary Summer”. 

For his part, Alessandro Michele is openly gay. He lives in Rome with his longtime partner Giovanni Attili, a professor of urban planning.

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Bruno Cooke

Bruno is a novelist, amateur screenwriter and journalist with interests in digital media, storytelling, film and politics. He’s lived in France, China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, but returned to the UK for a degree (and because of the pandemic) in 2020. His articles have appeared in Groundviews, Forge Press and The Friday Poem, and most are readable on Medium or onurbicycle.com.