Joe Lycett has revealed that countless people have the same reaction when he tells them he is in a long-term relationship with a woman.
The Brummie funnyman recently took to Instagram to reveal he had become a father for the first time, thanking staff at Birmingham Women’s Hospital for the ‘care and compassion’ shown to his newborn son and his partner – while also giving a bizarre shoutout to Autotrader.
Lycett, 36, keeps his private life just that: private.
He’s only ever revealed that his long-term girlfriend is called ‘Denise’ – which is, believe it or not, not her real name.
He has said that part of this is due to the job that ‘Denise’ has, which means she has to stay out of the public eye.
While presenting his show Late Night Lycett on Channel 4 earlier this year, Lycett revealed he was with ‘Denise’ despite people ‘presuming he is homosexual based on my entire personality’.
He later appeared on Bimini Bon-Boulash’s podcast The Pieces, where he said people have the same reaction when he reveals his relationship status.
“Well, it’s interesting now being in a long-term relationship with a woman because loads of people are like, ‘sorry, what?’,” Lycett said.
Joe Lycett is a household name after establishing a flourishing career in comedy and TV (Instagram / joelycett)
“There was a brief period when I was at school when I thought because I was attracted to men, I was gay, and then I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on.
“Then I use the term bisexual when anyone asks and I just want to give a quick answer because people understand that. But I think the most accurate way of describing myself is pansexual, in that I’m not attracted to people, just because of their gender.”
Lycett said he has problems explaining his sexuality to ‘idiots’ who simply don’t understand – or want to.
“I also don’t really know how it works because, I don’t know, how does it work? As in, I don’t know how it works in terms of like, explaining it to idiots,” he said.
“Because it is hard to sort of go, well, no, I am attracted to men sometimes, but not all men. And it’s not often to do with the fact that they are men. Often it’s like a good torso is enough, you know? The little abs. Yeah, that’s it. The lines. The torso is dangerous. A lovely arm.
“Yeah, it doesn’t matter what the gender or whatever. And I don’t know why that is, but that is how it is. It’s a strange one because to me that suggests that sexuality is not just man, woman. So the intellectual side of me goes it’s pansexual, which means all. So, that’s how I feel about myself.”
Lycett loves to wear unique outfits (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Announcing the birth of his son with ‘Denise’, Lycett placed a timely dig at the feet of good friends and comedians, Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett.
“I am LOVING being a dad but sadly I think this now means I can’t get out of going on Rob and Josh’s f**king podcast,” he wrote on Instagram.
Widdicombe and Beckett run the Parenting Hell podcast, where they speak about all things fatherhood among other experiences and embarrassing moments.
Responding, Widdicombe commented: “Next Friday?”
And Beckett chimed in, adding: “Let’s talk…”