Billie Eilish opens up about sex, masturbation, and her fear of whales

In case you missed it (probably not), Billie Eilish was recently interviewed for a cover story in Rolling Stone. In it, she talked about... a lot, including her sexuality, using sex to decompress, the benefits of masturbation, and her fear of whales. This article was going to be all about the whales, but apparently sex sells, not massive marine mammals. Who knew!

The cover shoot comes amid Eilish’s ongoing rollout for her 2024 album Hit Me Hard and Soft, coming on May 17. The record itself promises some pretty NSFW subject matter, with songs like “Lunch” comparing sex to “devouring a meal”. “I basically talk about sex any time I possibly can. That’s literally my favourite topic,” the singer reveals in the interview, adding that other people often get “weirded out” by women who are very comfortable in – and communicative about – their sexuality. “I think it’s such a frowned-upon thing to talk about, and I think that should change.”

She also touches on another taboo topic, especially for women: masturbation. “TMI, but self-pleasure is an enormous, enormous part of my life, and a huge, huge help for me,” she tells Rolling Stone. “People should be jerking it, man. I can’t stress it enough, as somebody with extreme body issues and dysmorphia that I’ve had my entire life.”

Going a step further, Eilish adds that she likes to masturbate in front of a mirror. “Partly because it’s hot,” she says, “but it also makes me have such a raw, deep connection to myself and my body, and have a love for my body that I have not really ever had.”

On the subject of her sexuality, meanwhile, she says that writing “Lunch” played a part in her becoming who she is today. “I wrote some of it before even doing anything with a girl, and then wrote the rest after,” she explains. “I’ve been in love with girls for my whole life, but I just didn’t understand – until, last year, I realised I wanted my face in a vagina.”

Given that quote, it may come as a surprise that she never planned to talk about her sexuality “ever, in a million years”. In 2023, however, Eilish criticised Variety for “outing” her at a red carpet event, writing in an Instagram post: “i like boys and girls leave me alone about it please literally who cares.” Looking back on this moment now, she suggests that the post was an overreaction, but maintains that the question was invasive. “Who fucking cares?” she says. “The whole world suddenly decided who I was, and I didn’t get to say anything or control any of it. Nobody should be pressured into being one thing or the other, and I think that there’s a lot of wanting labels all over the place.”

Elsewhere in the interview with Rolling Stone, Eilish goes on to discuss her “compulsive” desire to overshare, as well as her environmental efforts and, of course, the new music. Oh yeah, and then there’s the part when the world’s (unfairly-maligned) whale population catches some inexplicable strays: “How can anybody just accept that a whale exists, y’all? Those things are enormous. The noises they make. That shit is terrifying to me. Ew! Terrifying.” Read it in full here.