Prince did not identify as gay; by all credible accounts he described himself as straight, while cultivating an androgynous, gender-bending image that led many people to assume otherwise. He was romantically linked to and married women, and interviews from the early 1980s onward report him explicitly denying that he was gay, even as he played with ambiguity in his lyrics, fashion, and stage persona.

Public image and ambiguity

Prince’s clothing, makeup, and sexually charged performances—especially in the late 1970s and 1980s—blurred conventional gender lines and made some observers think he might be gay or bisexual. He also wrote lyrics that toyed with questions like “Am I straight or gay?” and presented himself with a deliberately androgynous symbol, which encouraged speculation about his sexuality and gender identity.

How he described himself

In interviews, journalists who asked Prince about his sexuality reported that he said he was not gay and rebuffed sexual advances from men, while keeping details of his private life largely off-limits. His known long-term romantic relationships and marriages were with women, which biographers and critics generally cite when describing him as heterosexual in orientation, despite his queer-adjacent aesthetic and influence.

Relationship to LGBTQ+ culture

Prince became a significant icon for many LGBTQ+ fans because of his androgyny, erotic openness, and challenges to rigid gender norms. However, his later embrace of Jehovah’s Witness teachings and reported comments about same- sex marriage complicated that legacy, leaving a mixed record of both queer influence and conservative religious views.