Bi Through the Ages: Famous (and Infamous) Bisexuals Who Made History - Sh! Women's Store

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Bi Through the Ages: Famous (and Infamous) Bisexuals Who Made History

Updated: October 29, 2025

There are plenty of great lists out there of current celebs openly talking about their bisexuality - shout out to the Evan Rachel Woods, Lady Gagas, and Halseys of the world - and we love them for it. But for a slightly different angle, let’s time-travel a bit. Because bisexuality is not a new trend, a TikTok aesthetic, or even a Gen Z invention.

Throughout history, brilliant (and sometimes chaotic) humans have loved across genders, challenged norms, and quietly (or not-so-quietly) lived their bisexual truth.

This is by no means a complete list, and we’d love to hear your additions in the comments. Ready? Let’s roll!

William Shakespeare

People love to speculate about Shakespeare’s private life because, frankly, we know very little, which makes it way more fun. But his sonnets? They spill the tea. The first 126 are addressed to a young man (the mysterious Fair Youth), while the last 28 are for a woman (the Dark Lady).

Take Sonnet 20, where he calls the Fair Youth “the master-mistress of my passion.” It’s basically a love poem from one man to another - with a dash of Elizabethan sexism we’ll politely skim over. The point? Shakespeare was writing bisexual sonnets before Instagram poetry was cool.

Daphne du Maurier

Author of Rebecca and Jamaica Inn, du Maurier is gothic royalty. Married with children, yes - but she also had a passionate affair with actress Gertrude Lawrence. Her comment on the matter? “Anyone with a spice of imagination would prefer a divan with Gertrude to a double bed with her.” Iconic.

She was also said to be enamoured with Ellen Doubleday, the wife of her American publisher. Complex, contradictory, utterly human - du Maurier’s sexuality is a reminder that “bi” isn’t about a neat little box.

Greta Garbo

Hollywood legend Greta Garbo kept her private life under wraps, but the rumours? They’re dazzling. She never married, but had relationships with both men and women. She wrote to her lifelong friend Mimi Pollak: “We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together.” If that doesn’t melt you, nothing will.

Garbo was also close with writer Mercedes de Acosta (famously out in an era when it was dangerous to be), and Louise Brooks casually admitted to a brief fling. Bisexual visibility in silent films? Garbo had it covered.

Lord Byron

Lord Byron was the original rockstar poet: scandalous, flamboyant, and described as “mad, bad and dangerous to know.” He loved women - and also men. At school and university, he had intense relationships with male friends; during his travels, he fell in love with Nicolo Giraud, a young French-Greek man to whom he left a small fortune in his will.

Byron’s bisexuality was well known in his circles, but history has often sanitised him as just a “womaniser.” Let’s set the record straight: Byron was gloriously, unapologetically bi.

Hans Christian Andersen

Here’s where things get a little melancholy. Andersen (yes, The Little Mermaid guy) was unlucky in love. He fell hard for both men and women, often unrequited. That heartbreak inspired The Little Mermaid - but in the original, our poor mermaid doesn’t marry the prince. She jumps overboard instead. Ouch.

Andersen died with a love letter from Edvard Collin (the man he adored) tucked to his chest. Proof, if ever you needed it, that bisexual love stories are as old as fairy tales themselves.

Virginia Woolf

Modernist queen and founder of the Bloomsbury set, Woolf had a devoted husband and a passionate affair with fellow writer Vita Sackville-West. Their relationship inspired Woolf’s famous novel Orlando, in which the main character changes sex midway through — an early literary celebration of fluidity and queerness.

Woolf’s love letters to Vita are tender, erotic, and brimming with longing. (Honestly, they’re hotter than half of today’s romance novels.)

Josephine Baker

Let’s talk Jazz Age.Josephine Baker was a singer, dancer, Resistance fighter, and civil rights activist - basically unstoppable. She also had relationships with both men and women, including fellow performer Clara Smith and possibly Frida Kahlo (can you imagine the vibes!). Baker herself once declared, “I didn’t lie to my lovers. I didn’t always tell them everything, but I never lied.”

A bisexual icon if ever there was one!

Eleanor Roosevelt (yes, really)

America’s longest-serving First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, had a decades-long relationship with journalist Lorena Hickok. Their letters (more than 3,000 of them) reveal deep affection and, many historians argue, romance.

One gem from Eleanor: “Hick darling… I want to put my arms around you and kiss you at the corner of your mouth.”

Bi history hidden in the White House archives? Absolutely.

Modern Bi Icons to Know

Of course, bisexual visibility is alive and well today — and plenty of stars are proudly waving the flag:

✨ Lady Gaga – The Mother Monster herself has long been open about her bisexuality and uses her platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
✨ Megan Fox – Unapologetically bi, she’s spoken openly about her attraction to both men and women.
✨ Alan Cumming – Actor, activist, and all-around legend who has proudly identified as bisexual for decades.
✨ Halsey – Musician, activist, and outspoken bi icon who refuses to let anyone erase her sexuality.
✨ Tessa Thompson – The Thor: Ragnarok and Westworld star has spoken about loving men and women, and advocates for more queer representation.
✨ Kristen Stewart – From Twilight to indie darling, Stewart has been candid about her relationships across genders.

Modern bisexuality is loud, proud, and very much centre stage, but as history shows, it always has been here.

Wrapping it up with Evan Rachel Wood

And to bring it back to the modern day, Evan Rachel Wood puts it beautifully:

“Bisexuality is a big part of who I am, and it always has been. I’ve honestly fallen in love with a man, and I’ve honestly fallen in love with a woman. I don’t know how you label that, it’s just how it is.”

That’s the truth that links Shakespeare to Garbo to Baker to Wood: bisexuality is timeless, real, and woven into human history. Not a trend. Not a phase. Just part of the beautiful mess of being human.

Why Visibility Matters

Bi Visibility Day isn’t just about rainbow flags and hashtags (though, yes, bring on the glitter!). It’s about breaking the silence around bisexual lives, because invisibility is its own form of erasure.

For centuries, bisexual people have been written out of history, dismissed as “confused,” or told their love was scandalous, sinful, or just didn’t exist. Yet here they are, century after century - poets, presidents, performers, activists - shaping the world we live in.

The more we tell these stories, the harder it becomes to deny them. Visibility chips away at stigma, helps younger people see themselves reflected, and reminds the world that bisexuality is not about indecision. It’s about honesty, freedom, and authenticity.

Over to you: Who’s your favourite historical (or modern) bi icon? Drop them in the comments - let’s build a list as dazzling and diverse as bisexuality itself xx

Read our thoughts on common myths about bisexuality here.

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