Kristen Stewart Opens Up About Her Relationship With Robert Pattinson: 'It Wasn't Real Life Anymore'

It’s been eight years since Kristen Stewart first hit the mainstream audience as Bella Swan, the Mary Sue protagonist of the ultimate vampire-werewolf fan fiction-turned-blockbuster behemoth, Twilight, a role that launched her career and thrust her squarely into the public eye.

Stewart formerly dated her co-star Robert Pattinson. A media storm ensued, because the pair fulfilled the hopes and dreams of Bella and Edward fans everywhere. That appeared to end when a photograph surfaced in 2012, of her kissing director Rupert Sanders, who helmed the Stewart-fronted Snow White and The Huntsman).

Now, four years later, Stewart has opened up to T Magazine about her past relationship with Pattinson.

“People wanted me and Rob to be together so badly that our relationship was made into a product,” Stewart said. “It wasn’t real life anymore. And that was gross to me. It’s not that I want to hide who I am or hide anything I’m doing in my life. It’s that I don’t want to become a part of a story for entertainment value.”

The lessons she’s learned since her time with Pattinson have aided Stewart with her current relationship with visual-effects producer Alicia Cargile, about whom she says, “I love her so much.”

“I would never talk about any of my relationships before, but once I started dating girls it seemed like there was an opportunity to represent something really positive,” she said. “I still want to protect my personal life, but I don’t want to seem like I’m protecting the idea, so that does sort of feel like I owe something to people.”

Read the rest of the interview here.

Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com.