Lupita Nyong’o was concerned that rumours about her dating Hollywood star Jared Leto would draw “attention away from the work”.
The Mexico-born actress, who grew up in Kenya, won an Academy Award for supporting actress for historical movie 12 Years A Slave and is also known for the Black Panther superhero films.
Nyong’o, 41, told Glamour that it has always been a “warm experience” having Requiem For A Dream actor and Thirty Seconds To Mars frontman Leto as a friend, but she “didn’t love” the idea that they had a romantic relationship.
She said: “It was drawing attention away from the work.
“I didn’t want that sort of attention. I didn’t want all that chatter to deter from the joy I was having becoming his friend.”
She and Leto both won Oscars in 2013, the latter for best supporting actor in Dallas Buyers Club.
Nyong’o also said she wanted to be “honest” by announcing her split from TV host Selema Masekela in 2023.
“I’m very happy with what I did, and I don’t want to do it anymore. I don’t want to share that part of myself anymore,” she said.
Following the break-up, Nyong’o says she was “severely broken” until animals changed her life.
The actress is currently starring in A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel to the horror film series A Quiet Place, which sees her character accompanied by a cat.
She says that she was initially reluctant to be accompanied by the animal and asked the director Michael Sarnoski for it to be changed to something else like “an armadillo”.
However, she has since learned to embrace cats.
“I was really having a hard time believing in joy,” Nyong’o says. “I was flirting with depression. I wasn’t there yet, but I was flirting with it. And I had a voice say in my head, ‘Get a cat’.”
Her cat Yoyo “isn’t going anywhere”, she says.
Nyong’o adds: “I guess the best antidote for when you feel poorly taken care of is to take care of something and I took care of Yoyo and he pried my heart open.”
Read the full interview in the Glamour June digital issue online now at glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/lupita-nyongo-interview-2024.