Beloved Late Night Host Explains Why She Came Out as Queer

A beloved comedian and writer is opening up about her decision to publicly come out as a queer woman.

Amber Ruffin, best known for her eponymous Peacock talk show and her work on Late Night with Seth Meyers, came out on the last day of Pride Month in 2024. Now, a year later, Ruffin reflected on the decision in a June 15 interview with USA Today.

“Coming out was so easy,” Ruffin, who also appears on CNN’s Have I Got News for You, told the outlet. “Coming out was so nothing. I don’t know anyone who cares. I really don’t. So I’m just a lucky little bug.”

Ruffin, 46, admitted that she didn’t initially feel like she had to announce her identity publicly, saying, “I didn’t think people really needed to come out anymore.”

But eventually, she wanted to officially declare herself a part of the queer community. “I certainly didn’t want anyone I dated to feel like I was hiding them,” Ruffin explained. “And that was the main point. But also I realized I was having privileges that straight people have and I did not want that.”

On June 30, 2024, Ruffin shared a number of photos from her Pride Month celebrations with the caption, “In what will come as a shock to exactly zero people, I’m using the last day of PRIDE to come out! Be proud of who you are, little babies! I know I am!” She joked, “And I can’t wait to be discriminated against for a new reason!!”

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Ruffin also told USA Today recently that her 2023 divorce from Jan Schiltmeijer served as a catalyst for her coming out.

“Last year I came out because I had gotten a divorce the year before and was kind of like, ‘I’ll never date another man.’ I feel like gay or straight, every woman has thought that,” she explained. “But then I realized what that meant. And do you know how like sometimes people are passing for white and then white people say wild [stuff] around them? I was like, I can’t let that happen to me around being queer. I don’t want it.”