Gillian Anderson has opened up about her former lesbian lover who died from a brain tumour.

The X-Files actress, who also stars in The Fall, opened up to the Mail on Sunday’s Even magazine about how she wants to honour her late lesbian partner by not hiding their relationship.

“She had died of a brain tumour… She was a beautiful person who was very meaningful in my life and I wanted to honor her instead of hiding my experience.”

Gillian Anderson (46) first revealed her relationships with women to Out Magazine in 2012, saying, “I was in a relationship with a girl for a long time when I was in high school.”

At the time, she downplayed the romance as she did not consider it particularly noteworthy, adding, “Would it have been a bigger deal if shame had been attached to it and all those things that become huge life-altering issues for youngsters in that situation? It’s possible that my attitude around it came, on some level, from knowing that I still liked boys.”

Now, she has opened up again about her late lover. “There was a point years after we split when she phoned to tell me to say she had been offered a large amount of money to sell a photograph of us together and had chosen not to do it,” she said.

“It was a very big decision because she really could have used the money. I felt it was very important to take the onus off that type of relationship, to say this happened and I feel no shame about it.”

Anderson admitted that she has had relationships with several women. She has had two husbands in her past, and is currently in a relationship Mark Griffiths, the father of her two children.