Niecy Nash has opened up about her sexuality after her surprise wedding to Jessica Betts, describing her love for a woman as a “going into myself” rather than a “coming out”.
The Claws star surprised fans in August when she announced her marriage to Betts on Instagram. The actor had never come out publicly and had twice been married to men in the past.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, the star said her relationship has “nothing to do with gender” and is about her wife’s soul.
“She is the most beautiful soul I have ever met in my life,” Nash said.
“I was not suppressing my sexuality my whole life. I love who I love. At one point in my life, I married twice and I love those people. And today I love this person.
“I’ve done everything I wanted to do on my own terms and my own way. So my choice now in a partner has nothing to do with who I’ve always been. It’s a matter of who I am in this moment.”
Niecy Nash says marrying Jessica Betts came from ‘being honest about whoI love’.
She continued: “I don’t feel like my marriage is my coming out of anywhere, but rather a going into myself and being honest about who I love. And I’m not limiting myself on what that love is supposed to look like.”
Nash and Betts first struck up a friendship through social media in 2015, when the actor was still married to her now-ex.
She said she “never saw” Betts as someone she would date until she and her husband separated in October 2019.
Following the break-up, Nash and Betts started to see each other in a new light.
“Sometimes you get so broken by love, you run from it,” Nash said. “But I’ve learned that you should always hold space for magic because ti can happen at any time.”
I don’t feel like my marriage is my coming out of anywhere, but rather a going into myself and being honest about who I love.
Niecy Nash also reflected on the powerful moment she and Betts proposed to each other on the same night.
“You know how you have those days where your significant other can just do things that drive you crazy? I feel like I was driving [Jessica] crazy all day,” she said.
“So it didn’t make sense to me that she turned around at the end of the night, and we were sitting in the jacuzzi, and I got up and I went upstairs and she came up and she was like, ‘You know what? You’ve been getting on my nerves all day. but if anybody is going to get on my nerves, I want it to be you’.
“Then she said, ‘You are absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me’ before she popped the question.”
Later that night, Nash proposed to Betts after deciding that they were “non-traditional people” and didn’t need to follow old-fashioned rules around marriage.
Nash shared the news of her wedding on Instagram on August 31.
“Mrs Carol Denise Betts,” she captioned the post, using her full legal name, along with an emoji of an engagement ring and the hashtag #LoveWins.