Kristen Stewart has opened up about her sexuality and revealed for the first time that she has a girlfriend.

The 26-year-old actress talked about her on-again, off-again relationship with film producer Alicia Cargile in an interview in Elle UK’s September issue.

When I was dating a guy I was hiding everything that I did because everything personal felt like it was immediately trivialised, so I didn’t like it.

We were turned into these characters and placed into this ridiculous comic book, and I was like, ‘That’s mine. You’re making my relationship something that it’s not.’ I didn’t like that.

But then it changed when I started dating a girl. I was like, ‘Actually, to hide this provides the implication that I’m not down with it or I’m ashamed of it’, so I had to alter how I approached being in public.

It opened my life up and I’m so much happier.”

Referring to girlfriend Alicia Cargile, she said:

I’m just really in love with my girlfriend. We’ve broken up a couple of times and gotten back together, and this time I was like, ‘Finally, I can feel again’.”

Stewart and Cargile have been spotted out together in the past – most recently holding hands as they returned from the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.