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Here’s What Janelle Monáe Has To Say About Rumors She’s Dating Tessa Thompson

Her "Dirty Computer" trailer has people talking.

Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer trailer had a lot of people talking about her relationship with Tessa Thompson. Many believed it confirmed that the pair were dating.

Apparently though, that isn’t so. According to Monae, she actually wants to separate herself from being Cindi Mayweather, her android alter ego, and focus on her career.

“Right now I’m escaping the gravity of the labels that people have tried to place on me that have stopped my evolution,” she said in a New York Times profile from Thursday (April 19). Could she be getting at Tessa with that statement?

“I want it to be very clear that I’m an advocate for women,” she said when asked about her and Thompson’s relationship. “I’m a girl’s girl, meaning I support women no matter what they choose to do. I’m proud when everybody is taking agency over their image and their bodies.”

Jenna Wortham, who penned the Times piece, said Monáe “[deciding] on a response was like watching a mathematician working out Fermat’s Last Theorem.”

Thompson and Monae have been denying they have an intimate relationship for over three years now. Often times, they’re photographed at events together and more recently, people believe their union is even stronger.

Earlier this year, Thompson was in Monae’s “Make Me Feel.” It started up the conversation, which carried on and hit its peak with the Dirty Computer visual album teaser. In that, Thompson’s wearing a pair of pink vulvar pants and appears between Monae’s legs.

Speaking of Dirty Computer, it will release on BET, as well as other Viacom platforms, on April 27.

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