JoJo Siwa has opened up about a phone call she received from Elton John after she publicly came out as gay last year.
JoJo, 19, came out in 2021 over a series of posts on TikTok and Instagram. Fans began wondering about the dancer's sexuality when she lipsynced Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' following a day with TikTok collective Pride House LA, and she confirmed it by wearing a t-shirt that read "BEST GAY COUSIN EVER," per People.
As cited by People, JoJo said that her sexuality was the last thing she revealed to the world, but was inspired by her love for her then-girlfriend Kylie Prew. "I still don't know what I am. It's like, I want to figure it out. And I have this joke. Her name is Kylie. And so I say that I'm Ky-sexual," Jojo said.
She continued: "But like, I don't know, bisexual, pansexual, queer, lesbian, gay, straight. I always just say gay because it just kind of covers it or queer because I think the keyword is cool. Technically I would say that I am pansexual because that's how I have always been my whole life is just like, my human is my human."
The singer and dancer recently opened up to E! News about how Elton John has helped her throughout her life, and how he reached out to her after she publicly came out to offer his support.
She recalls how he said: "'Hello JoJo, darling. This is Elton.' And I was like, 'Mom, get the camera out. It's Elton John.'" However, this isn't the first interaction the pair had had.
JoJo explained: "I remember the first time I ever got to meet Elton was backstage at one of his concerts and I got to talk to him for 45 minutes. I was only 15 and that conversation changed my life forever."
The teenage superstar expressed how seeing celebrities like Elton John and Freddie Mercury get accepted for who they are, gave her the confidence to be who she is. "All of those people who came before me in the gay community made me feel like, oh, it's going to be OK. Those people are who they are, people know them and people love them," she explained.
JoJo shares her philosophy of being authentic to her true self on social media with her current girlfriend Avery Cyrus.