Who Is Tessa Thompson Dating? She’s Pretty Private About It, Actually

If you want to pretend you haven’t had a slight obsession with Tessa Thompson ever since she first appeared as Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok, that’s fine, but we all know that’s probably not 100 percent true. Tessa has been in the public eye for quite a while now, though her earliest acting roles were actually on a stage rather than the silver screen.

As often happens with celebrities as they gain popularity, people have been wondering about Tessa’s personal life — especially whether she’s dating anyone right now. We were also curious about that, so here’s what we found out!

For several years now, there has been speculation that Tessa is dating singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe. These rumors came to a head shortly after Tessa appeared in Janelle’s delightful (and delightfully suggestive) music video for the song “Pynk,” which in turn came on the heels of Janelle coming out as pansexual. Tessa addressed the rumors in a 2018 interview with Net-a-Porter:

“It’s tricky, because Janelle and I are just really private people and we’re both trying to navigate how you reconcile wanting to have that privacy and space, and also wanting to use your platform and influence,” she said. 

“That was something I was conscientious of in terms of this declaration around Janelle and myself. I want everyone else to have that freedom and support that I have from my loved ones. But so many people don’t. So, do I have a responsibility to talk about that? Do I have a responsibility to say in a public space that this is my person?” 

Tessa didn’t confirm that she and Janelle were a couple, but she didn’t mince words, either: “We love each other deeply,” she said. “We’re so close, we vibrate on the same frequency. If people want to speculate about what we are, that’s OK. It doesn’t bother me.” 

In that same interview, Tessa said she is attracted to both men and women. This led to many people labeling her as bisexual, though as she later told The Independent that she doesn’t feel any need to label her sexuality. 

“The thing for me is, I was just speaking candidly. Some people categorized it as 'coming out' or something. And I have never been in, so I don’t know what that means. [...] There were a lot of people that said, ‘Oh she’s bisexual.’ I never said that word, because I don’t think in those binaries. I feel like that’s important to say, just for me, because that’s not the way that I specifically identify.”

For what it’s worth, Tessa and Janelle appeared on several red carpets together back in 2018 and have since appeared on each other’s social media accounts with some frequency. Most recently, they posted an Instagram Live together (albeit recorded from separate places) back in October to encourage people to register to vote. Regardless of whether they’re romantically involved with one another, Tessa and Janelle are clearly good friends who care a lot about one another (and also about democracy).

At the end of the day, Tessa’s personal life is something she prefers to keep personal — go figure! We can certainly get behind that, and we also hope that she is happy and living her best life. Judging by her apparent success and happiness, it looks as though she’s doing just that.