Anywhere you look on the internet, it’s pretty easy to assume everyone is sex-obsessed (hi, it’s me). But for the past few years, this hasn’t exactly been true. Recently, there have been a few studies that have shown that people in the U.S. — especially the younger generation — are having less sex these days. In fact, some people just aren’t having sex at all.
And no we’re not talking about incels. We’re talking about people who are so fed up with their romantic and sexual interactions that they’re taking themselves out of the game for now. And it’s not just a few people — the boysober trend is all over TikTok. Being “boysober” basically means abstaining from all parts of dating, and sex is included in that.
But it’s not just the people of TikTok taking part. There have been celebrities who have opened up about celibacy and why they chose to refrain from sex. Most recently, Julia Fox revealed on TikTok that she’s been celibate for over two years (yes, that means she never slept with that man) and how she’s “never been better tbh.” In an interview with The New York Times, she said that there wasn’t any mention of the sex with Kanye in her memoir Down the Drain, because… there wasn’t any sex. In fact, she said they were never really dating — mostly just friends who were hanging out.
In addition to Julia Fox, here are celebs who shared their experience with celibacy — whether it was a purposeful break from sex or happenstance.
Zayn Malik
In a recent interview with Nylon, Zayn talked about how he’s happy being single for the first time in his life and is taking his time. He mentioned that he’s not even on the apps and is definitely not trying to get into a relationship with anyone. Sorry, girls.
Kourtney Kardashian
Okay, so Kourtney basically only refrained from sex for a little while but if you’ve seen the way her and hubby Travis Barker are on each other all the time, you’d understand how hard it was for her. While Kourtney took part in this “sex fast” to help with fertility efforts, she told Bustle that it actually made their sex life better once they got back to getting busy.
Justin Bieber
Okay, so we know the Beebz definitely isn’t celibate now (he and Hailey just announced their first pregnancy!) but right before he reconnected with Hailey, he was going on a year and a half of celibacy. He told Vogue it was because he struggled with an addiction to sex and so he and Hailey decided to wait til marriage to have sex again.
Nick Cannon
This is someone who probably should be celibate forever but unfortunately we know this isn’t the case. After finding out Bre Tiesi was pregnant with his eighth child (that is, with four different women), he said on his show Nick Cannon that he had been practicing celibacy to get a grapple on everything that was going on in his life. But now that he’s up to 12 kids, so we know that didn’t pan out well.
Yvonne Orji
With all the sex scenes Yvonne had as Molly in Insecure, it’s probably shocking to hear that at 39 years old, she’s actually a virgin. While Yvonne told People that her decision to abstain from sex til marriage has to do with religious beliefs, she’s also adamant about waiting for the right person.
Suki Waterhouse
Before she met her boyfriend (and babydaddy!!) Robert Pattinson, Suki was celibate for six months. On Driven Minds: A Type 7 Podcast she revealed that she actually avoided dating altogether during that time. The singer said the moment in her life was “brilliant” because it took away the chaos of wanting to get attention from other people.
Lady Gaga
So this was years ago, but there was a point where Lady Gaga was super open about being single and not having sex with other people. In an interview with The Daily Mail, she spoke about how she was spending time with herself and just getting to know people. She also encouraged fans to follow her lead because she wanted them to know they shouldn’t be having sex just to feel good about themselves.
