Miss Universe Australia’s Maria Thattil comes out as bisexual after being ‘outed’ by dating app. #PinkInOurLives

Former Miss Universe Australia Maria Thattil has publicly come out as bisexual after revealing she had been “outed” through a dating app when a friend noticed her preference settings.

The 28-year-old model explained she had previously chosen to keep her sexuality private because there were “many homophobic sentiments” around being a lesbian when she was growing up.

The I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! Australia contestant opened up about hiding her childhood crushes and her struggle towards acceptance in a candid new interview.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the reality star stated: “It is something I have felt for a very long time. I grew up having crushes on girls in school and just completely invalidated it because of religion and also because there were many homophobic sentiments in my school around being a lesbian, around anything other than heteronormativity. You don’t have a lot of bisexual visibility in popular culture and so you don’t understand what it is.”

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After the episode in which she came out to her I’m a Celebrity… campmates aired on 12 January, the model wrote: “Conquering water pythons and coming out on national television? All in a days work. Humour aside, I definitely felt a dissonance in the jungle talking about @minus18youth but not being honest about my own sexuality.

“I’m grateful to David Subritzky and the show for becoming a safe space for me. I’m grateful that I could model how to have a feared, big conversation in a gentle, simple way with no shame or stigma. I’m grateful for everyone who shared their own stories with me after last night and bloody proud of some who came out – on the spot – to family members after witnessing the convo. What a humbling privilege it was to share and normalise what is such a personal and human experience. More of this.”