Kristen Stewart opens up on dating Alicia Cargile and why dating women is easier

Kristen Stewart says she's 'really in love' and 'much happier' with her new girlfriend. Photo / SplashNews

Kristen Stewart has confirmed she is dating Alicia Cargile.

The 26-year-old actress - who was previously in a relationship with Robert Pattinson for five years until she cheated on him with married director Rupert Sanders - was first romantically linked with her personal assistant 18 months ago, but she has never directly addressed the speculation until now, admitting she is overjoyed they have recently got back together.

She said: "Right now I'm just really in love with my girlfriend. We've broken up a couple of times and gotten back together, and this time I was like, 'Finally, I can feel again.'"

The Cafe Society actress admitted she is more open about her personal life now she's in a same-sex relationship and feels much happier that she is being less closed off to people.

She told the new issue of Britain's Elle magazine: "When I was dating a guy I was hiding everything that I did because everything personal felt like it was immediately trivialised, so I didn't like it.

"We were turned into these characters and placed into this ridiculous comic book, and I was like, 'That's mine. You're making my relationship something that it's not.' I didn't like that.

"But then it changed when I started dating a girl. I was like, 'Actually, to hide this provides the implication that I'm not down with it or I'm ashamed of it, so I had to alter how I approached being in public. It opened my life up and I'm so much happier."

The Equals star recently insisted she doesn't want to define her sexuality.

She said: "Me not defining it right now is the whole basis of what I'm about. If you don't get it, I don't have time for you. There's acceptance that's become really rampant and cool. You don't have to immediately know how to define yourself.

"I had to have some answer about who I was. I felt this weird responsibility, because I didn't want to seem fearful. But nothing seemed appropriate. So I was like, 'F***, how do I define that?' I'm not going to. Plus, I didn't want to f*** with other people. I didn't want to be this example: It's so easy. I don't want it to seem like it was stupid for them to have a hard time. I find the movement that's occurring to be so important, that I want to be part of it."