Tracee Ellis Ross is once again addressing the misconceptions about her love life and her sense of independence.
In a new interview for the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast, the 53-year-old actress spoke about her independence, her views on relationships, and how her mother, Diana Ross, shaped her sense of self-sufficiency.
“You know, I don't know that my mom said you don't need a man,” Tracee said near the 12-minute mark in the video linked above. “I mean, don't get me wrong. I would love a partner and I've had some wonderful dating … and some wonderful relationships. So, it's not that. I just haven't found the person that is my life partner yet.”
Further into the interview, Tracee said being fiercely independent is simply who she is.
"It used to bother me because I felt like I was doing something wrong," she admitted, before adding that she's learned to embrace her balance of independence and connection. "I'm very comfortable with myself... but I'm also, with my friends and the people that l'm really safe with, l'm like a barnacle. Like, you can't let go of me."
While addressing the public fascination with her being single, Tracee said, "It's slightly exhausting … Sometimes people talk about it as if I have tried to be a poster child for that. I'm like, ‘No, that's just the facts.’ I also don't publicize when I am dating. We don't talk about that, that's okay.
“When you start dating someone, you don't want public point of view about something that's private as you're trying to discover if it works for you or not. So, no, I don't do that. I have not been chronically single. I haven't done, what do they call it? A soft launch? I haven't done a soft launch.”
Ross also shared her frustration at intrusive questions about marriage and motherhood, joking, "I've said to somebody in an interview, ‘will you please get out of my womb? Just get out of my womb, that's not your business.’"
But she sees discussions of her "singledom" as an opportunity to reframe the narrative.
“The thing about my singledom is I don't mind the conversation because it allows me to transform that question into the other thing, which is how am I choicefully living my life and how am I curating a life that actually matches where I am,” she explained, adding that she’s not “waiting” for another person “to do the things that I want to do that bring me joy.”
She continued, “And that's where the [Solo Traveling] show came from. It's something that I always do. And it's something that has been a big part of me living out loud for who I am. And also, by the way, it's been a long discovery of what do I consider fun? Like, other people's fun is not my version of fun. And so I have to figure out how to make that real for me. And that's why now I look around and I'm like, "Oh, my life looks like me. It actually matches who I am.’”
Watch Tracee Ellis Ross’s full interview with Emma Grede up top.