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 modelling career, and the complicated feelings she kept hidden throughout.
Speaking on the 3 June episode of Call Her Daddy, the 33-year-old model and actress reflected on her debut appearance in the famous runway event in 2012, a time when she had not yet publicly explored or revealed her sexuality.
She described the experience as simultaneously fun and disorienting, like playing dress-up while carrying a secret she hadn’t yet fully examined herself.
“I was in the closet. I was gay and also [thinking], ‘Am I the only lesbian that’s ever done Victoria’s Secret,'” she said.
“I was having a great time, but also very confused. I felt like I was an undercover lesbian.”
Delevingne said she had never felt close to femininity growing up and hadn’t enjoyed being a girl in a world that she felt attached fewer opportunities to that identity.
Walking in 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 for the 2013 show 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.
