Actress Jena Malone: Coming out as pansexual ‘felt so nice’

Actress Jena Malone says coming out as pansexual on Instagram last week “felt so nice” because of all the support she received.

“I feel like I’m a little bit late to the game in being able to have less shame,” the “Hunger Games” star, 37, told the Hollywood Reporter Wednesday.

“I’ve been loving the process of learning more about myself and others through different terms that open windows, those windows then turns into doors and then I arrive at a place to find all this cool stuff out there.”

Pansexuality is defined as the “sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity.”

In August 2016, Malone got engaged to her then-beau, Ethan Delorenzo — three months after they welcomed a child together. However, they reportedly split in 2019. Soon after, the “Lovesong” star began dating musician Alex Ebert.

“The sexual journey is so beautiful,” Malone told THR. “I mean, all of the identity journeys are so cool.”

On Aug. 19, Malone posted a video of herself on Instagram doing an interpretive dance in her kitchen and captioned it, “I guess It felt like I was a heterosexual man in a woman’s body. I visualized his desires and placed them on to me. But this, was never the whole of the story that was meant for me.”

“So I’ve been learning a new way to tell it. Using words to guide me not define me. That my sexual identity has more to teach and to tell me. Finding words that feel more right to explore in my telling.”

She concluded, “Pansexuality. Sapiosexuality. Polyamory. A fuller spectrum of understanding that my story is demanding of me. And I’m honoring it today with this soft and sleepy little stretch of a dance. I love humans. So there’s that ❤️❤️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈❤️❤️.”

Malone shared with THR how her family dynamics have made her feel more comfortable coming out since she was raised by “two moms.”

“My sister is queer and I grew up with two moms who were lovers and then they split,” the “Stepmom” star told the publicaiton.

“My mom sort of became hetero again, mostly through an understanding of Christianity. And then my god mom married her partner of 17 years now. So, I have three moms and my dad who has been a hetero man all his life.”

She added, “I have the whole spectrum. It’s nice to be able to have these different types of conversations with everyone. I feel really blessed to have an accepting family.”