Ethel Cain Reveals She Recently Entered Her ‘First-Ever’ Romantic Relationship at Age 27: ‘Never Explored It’

Ethel Cain has revealed that she recently entered into her “first-ever” romantic relationship.

In a new interview with The Guardian published on Thursday, July 24, the alt-pop musician (whose real name is Hayden Anhedönia) revealed it happened recently at the age of 27.

While discussing her forthcoming album Willoughby Tucker, Cain, 27, detailed how her teenage apprehension about love resurfaced.

“Love was always my final frontier,” she told the publication. “I never explored it. I never processed anything.”

Cain continued: “I never progressed past the idea of love that I had as a teenager.”

Despite her struggles in the album-making process, the “American Teenager” hitmaker has gratitude for it now.

“I see Ethel Cain as a piece of me that I separate from myself and discard, so that I can make good decisions in life,” Cain told the outlet.

She added, “If Preacher’s Daughter was my learning experience of what not to do with trauma and healing, Willoughby Tucker has been my experience of what not to do in love.”

Earlier this month, Cain made a public response to the backlash she received after now-deleted screenshots of social media posts from when she was 19 — that included “racist statements” — reappeared on Reddit.

A member of the subreddit dedicated to Cain shared screenshots of 2017 and 2018 social posts, which were originally shared to X by an account called @herweirdsilas, per Stereogum. Allegedly, the posts were devoted to “exposing” Ethel Cain.

According to the site, there were allegedly posts that included fat-shaming and rape jokes, among other topics via the Q&A platform Curious Cat.

Per Stereogum, Cain allegedly admitted to using the N-word and wrote “build that wall!” in response to a post mocking the Latino community in the screenshots.

Cain posted a lengthy response on Google Docs where she admitted it was her account “and they were my words.”

“I was 19 and I was entirely aware of what I was saying and that was why I said it,” she said.

Cain claimed that at the time she “fell into a subculture online that prioritized garnering attention at all costs.”

She noted that there were “no place for excuses in this matter.”

“At the end of the day I am white, so while I can take accountability for my actions, there’s no way for me to fully understand the way it feels to be on the receiving end of them,” added Cain.

She then apologized “from the bottom of my heart, to anyone who read it then and to anyone reading it now.”

“Any way you feel about me moving forward is valid,” she wrote, adding that she looks back at that time in her life “shamefully.”

Cain’s forthcoming album, Willoughby Tucker, is due Aug. 8.