Rupert Everett has admitted that wild sex in his youth was ‘fraught with danger’ amid the AIDS epidemic.
The actor, 65, spoke in a candid new interview about his sexual awakening in London which despite the dangers he said he still found ‘thrilling’.
Rupert – who is now happily married to husband Henrique, a Brazilian accountant – also spoke about dating women in his youth as it was more acceptable at the time.
He dated the likes of Bianca Jagger, Susan Sarandon, Paula Yates, Béatrice Dalle ‘with varying degrees of success’ – but always knew he was gay.
Of his sex life he told The Times: ‘I was stupid. I can’t really understand it and don’t admire it… I thought sex was my liberation from a military middle-class background, but it was fraught with danger, not only from Aids.
Rupert Everett has admitted that wild sex in his youth was ‘fraught with danger’ amid the AIDS epidemic
The actor, 65, spoke in a candid new interview about his sexual awakening in London which despite the dangers he said he still found ‘thrilling’ (seen in 1987)
‘I was walking on razors without knowing it. I can’t really relate to myself as a young person any more.’
However he added: ‘It was really fun and thrilling. I was so into gay sex I didn’t mind who I had it with.
‘I wasn’t one of those people who just wanted to meet good-looking people. I wanted to meet anybody. It felt so new and fresh and rebellious.’
He added that at that time it was still not widely acceptable to be gay and that in terms of any potential physical or verbal abuse he would get he ‘had to be ready for anything’.
Earlier this year it was revealed that he had married Henrique.
He had previously dismissed the institution of marriage and was still more scathing about gay marriage, deriding it as ‘a waste of time’ and ‘beyond tragic’.
A friend told The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden in June: ‘They married recently.
‘Both are wearing rings and are clearly very happy. Henrique is absolutely charming. He’s rather quiet and happy to let Rupert take centre stage.’
Rupert – who is now happily married to husband Henrique, a Brazilian accountant – also spoke about dating women in his youth as it was more acceptable at the time
He told The Times: ‘I was stupid. I can’t really understand it and don’t admire it… I thought sex was my liberation from a military middle-class background, but it was fraught with danger, not only from Aids’
Rupert is seen here with Henrique, a Brazilian accountant, who he married earlier this year
He has in the past spoken with characteristic verve about marriage – and about why, in his words, it’s ‘not my idea of heaven’.
Everything about friends’ weddings, he explained in 2020, he found ‘repellent’, and going to stag nights in the early 1980s was ‘one of the most appalling things’ he’d ever experienced.
Warming to his theme, he summarised wedding dresses as ‘hideous’, wedding cakes as ‘ghastly’ and lamented that ‘everyone is splitting up’ within two years of their wedding day.
‘I think making it a legal contract is very, very damaging to a relationship,’ reflected Everett, who, in his wild youth became entangled with John Hervey, later the 7th Marquess of Bristol, who died of Aids aged 44, having blown £35 million on drugs, rent boys and other amusements.
‘A relationship has to breathe and live and change, and turn into a different thing every day,’ added Everett (left). But he did concede his perspective had shifted.
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Rupert Everett says if he grew up today he would be encouraged to change gender and would now be a woman after enjoying cross-dressing as a boy – but says 'I love being a gay man'
Declaring his intention of being with Henrique ‘forever’ — they live with Everett’s mother and their Labrador, Pluto, in Wiltshire — he said he envisaged a restrained, unfussy wedding.
‘It’s not going to be George Clooney on a motor ski going down the Grand Canal in Venice,’ he explained. ‘It’s going to be very quiet.’
In recent weeks the star has been promoting his new book, The American No, a collection of Hollywood-inspired short stories.
In March this year Rupert said that if he had grown up today then he would have been ‘encouraged’ to transition – and would now ‘be a woman’.
The actor said as a child he was a ‘great cross-dresser’ and believed he would have ‘definitely transitioned’ if he had been born in a younger generation.
However, the actor said that he wouldn’t have wanted to be a woman as he loves ‘being a gay man’.
Everett told the Rosebud podcast: ‘I was a very shy, quiet, child. I loved sitting in cupboards.
‘I was a great cross-dresser, I’d be a woman if this was today because I stole one of my mother’s discarded skirts and I wore it and I pretended I was Julie Andrews’ daughter.
‘This was after I’d seen the Sound of Music, and Mary Poppins, and that really was one of the big changes in my life.’
The My Best Friend’s Wedding actor admitted when he was aged five – he loved ‘playing house in drag’.
He continued: ‘I’d put on her wig, and I’d put on her dressing gown, and I’d go outside to the backdoor and come to the front door and ring the doorbell and pretend to be one of the guests.
‘And, I’d have one of her handbags and the first time they’d go “Oh hello, what’s your name”.
‘And, I’d come in and sit in the drawing room for a second and then after about five minutes they’d say “Okay darling, time to go to bed now”.
‘I’d go upstairs, and as soon as I was in bed, and as soon as they’d gone downstairs, I’d jump up again, go put on something else, go round the back, go to the front door, ring the doorbell, and do it all again.’
Everett in character as Miss Fritton on the set of St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold with Sarah Harding and Talulah Riley
Everett said when he was older, and had moved to London, he was having a ‘fantastic time’.
He added: ‘I went to drama school in diamanté earrings, I mean I would have definitely transitioned if it had been now.
‘I think now, I would have been encouraged to and probably would have done.’
Despite this, Everett admitted he ‘didn’t’ want to be a woman.
‘No, I like being a man, I love being a gay man.’