Stephen Fry is one of several celebrities to have spoken out about an extended period of celibacy in their life, having gone without sex for 17 years.
Drew Barrymore once revealed she could go years without sex, Andrew Garfield went six months without it for his role in Silence, and Robbie Williams has spoken out about his ‘sexless marriage’ with Ayda Field.
Fry is happily married, having tied the knot to his husband Elliot Spencer ten years ago.
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Spencer, who is 30 years younger than Fry, was spotted with the actor and comedian for the first time in six years two months ago when Fry picked up his knighthood.
Fry has revealed the lack of pictures is due to their desire to keep their marriage private. However, he's also spoken about how, prior to this marriage, he went through a 17-year period without sex.
This ran from shortly after university all the way through to the late 90s or early 2000s.
In an interview with Lateline’s Toby Jones, he stated that he ‘got on with [his] life without sex’.
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Later in this interview, he gave one of the factors for why he went such a long period without sex, but this is not the only time he has spoken about it, or the only reason he has given.
In his interview with Jones, he went on to say that he had become disgusted with the realities of sex.
The comedian, who is famously an outspoken atheist, said that he had come to question why God had created human beings to ‘find delight in organs of the body that are parked exactly adjacent to or indeed share a function with the organs of excretion?’
He went on to say: “All those damp, tufted areas of the human body with their strange odours. How can anybody find them attractive?”
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Among the things Fry said changed his mind about sex, he said the main one was love.
He said: “Love flicked the switch ... I found someone. It just happened and that's what allowed sex to take place.”
Fry made a more disheartening confession when speaking about this period with The Guardian, stating that his mental health troubles played a big role in his period of celibacy.
He stated that he had a ‘big eruption’ related to his mental health in the mid 90s, and that ‘after the dust had settled’, he was able to get a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder.
Speaking of this he said: “I realised all my life I had sort of tried to control my feelings and things, and I’d imagined everything should go into work. I worked at an astonishing rate.”
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When talking about the ‘astonishing rate’ he worked at, Fry opened up about his addiction to cocaine in his memoir More Fool Me.
He said this went so far that he took cocaine in Buckingham Palace and the House of Lords.
Now, however, he lives a much more quiet life – stating that himself and his husband Elliot Spencer prefer a quiet night in over a party.
Topics: Stephen Fry, Mental Health, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Michael Slavin