Nicola Sturgeon has opened up about her personal relationships in a new autobiography – revealing that she has never considered her sexuality to be binary.
In an extract from her memoir Frankly, the former First Minister of Scotland, who was married to Peter Murrell for 15 years, candidly addressed the issue of her own sexual orientation.
She said: ‘Long-term relationships with men have accounted for more than thirty years of my life, but I have never considered sexuality, my own included, to be binary.’
She added: ‘Moreover, sexual relationships should be private matters.’
Ms Sturgeon was in a relationship with Mr Murrell from 2003 to 2025, having met in 1988 at a SNP youth event and marrying in 2010 at Òran Mór in Glasgow.
In January of this year the former politician announced on social media that she and the former Chief Executive Officer of the SNP had split.
In an extract published by The Times, the former politician also discussed rumours around a lesbian affair, her husband’s desperation for a baby and the difficult experience of losing a child.
Nicola Sturgeon has opened up about her sexuality, revealing that she has never considered her sexuality to be binary in a new autobiography (Pictured with her husband Peter Murrell)
Ms Sturgeon also said she was furious upon hearing rumours she was having a lesbian affair with the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna (pictured together February, 2020)
Ms Sturgeon, 55, and Mr Murrell, 60, divorced earlier this year (pictured together in 2010 on their wedding day)
Ms Sturgeon, 55, and Mr Murrell, 60, ruled at the top of the SNP and Scottish politics for many years before she stood down as first minister and party leader in March 2023.
Her resignation from politics came after she and her husband were arrested as part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform probe into the SNP’s finances.
Elsewhere in the tell-all book, the former SNP leader confessed she was disappointed after finding out she was pregnant at 40.
Ms Sturgeon revealed she had been ‘ambivalent’ to the idea of having children and while her then-husband had never put pressure on her, she knew he was keen to become a father.
After discovering she was set to be a mother, the ex-politician said she was disappointed, and instead wanted to focus on her career.
She wrote: ‘I was overwhelmed by guilt. I felt guilty about being pregnant, about not feeling happier about being pregnant about not being as happy as Peter was, about hiding that from him.
Shortly after telling their friends and family, the couple at the heart of Scottish politics lost their baby.
Ms Sturgeon confessed that she felt the miscarriage was a punishment for not wanting the baby.
Ms Sturgeon was in a relationship with Mr Murrell from 2003 to 2025, having met in 1988 at a SNP youth event and marrying in 2010 at Òran Mór in Glasgow (pictured together December 12, 2019)
Ms Sturgeon said she was ‘desolate and heartbroken’ after losing her baby in 2010 and confessed she new she would never have another opportunity to become a mother (Pictured at a memorial service for the Ibrox disaster days after her miscarriage)
Despite her initial feelings of guilt around falling pregnant, following the news she had lost her baby, Ms Sturgeon said she had in fact wanted to be a mother.
After her pregnancy, passed, the former politician called her husband in to the bathroom to say goodbye to their baby.
She said: ‘I had the presence of mind to call Peter into the bathroom and, together, we flushed our “baby” down the toilet.’
Ms Sturgeon added that she new that was her last opportunity to have a baby and added she was ‘desolate and heartbroken’ for herself and her husband and that the feeling of grief has never left her.
In the tell-all memoir she also revealed she would have called the baby Isla Margaret if it had been a girl, in honour of her grandmother and Peter’s mother.
During the difficult period, Ms Sturgeon attended a memorial service at Rangers Football Club to mark the 40th anniversary of the Ibrox disaster, and visited the NHS24 call centre to thank staff for their efforts over the festive period.
Ms Sturgeon also discussed the regret she has around not having children and said if she could turn back time she would choose to have children – but only on the condition that it would not have affected career.
She added that she didn’t feel her life is ‘worthless’ because she never became a mother.
The ex-First Minister also touched upon the rumoured lesbian affair she had with he French ambassador to the UK, who would later become the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna.
The former SMP said the rumours of her extra-marital affair gnawed away at her, adding that she would not normally care but found the suggestions harder to ignore after more than a year of it being ‘openly talked about’.
Ms Sturgeon said it had become so normalised that neighbours were even making open comments to her former husband outside their home.
However, the politician said the final straw came in February 2020 when the news site Guido published social media posts suggesting she had taken out a super injunction to stop news of the affair spreading.
The Scot wrote she was ‘furious’ at the ‘blatant lie’ but added the ‘insult’ was water off a duck’s back and said she simply tried to shrug it off with the helps of Ms Colonna.
Together they attempted to quash the rumours by being photographed as a couple several times at Cop27 in Egypt and believed they ‘had successfully trolled the trolls’.
Ms Sturgeon’s book will be launched on August 14 at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, while it was also revealed last night that the 55-year-old will give an ‘in-depth’ interview to ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham next month, just days before it comes out.
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