Cara Delevingne has opened up about what it was really like to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show at the height of her modeling career, and the complicated feelings she kept hidden throughout.
Talking about the June 3 episode of Call her dadthe 33-year-old model and actress reflected on her debut appearance at the famous runway event in 2012, a time when she had yet to publicly explore or reveal her sexuality.
She described the experience as both fun and disorienting, like playing dress-up while carrying a secret she hadn’t yet fully investigated herself.
“I was in the closet. I was gay and also [thinking]”Am I the only lesbian to ever do Victoria’s Secret,” she said.
“I felt great, but also very confused. I felt like I was an undercover lesbian.”
Delevingne said she had never felt close to femininity growing up and had not enjoyed being a girl in a world where she felt she had fewer options for that identity.
Wearing a miniskirt and stilettos at one of fashion’s most high-profile events meant embodying a version of herself that felt performed rather than authentic.
“Something darker about it” undercut the fun, she said, because she was navigating her identity without a clear sense of where she stood.
She returned to the show in 2013 and was invited back in 2016 but declined.
She is now in a relationship with singer-songwriter Leah Mason, known professionally as Mink, whom she met at boarding school and reconnected with twelve years later.
