Source: Joseph Marzullo/WENN.com / WENN
Back in February, writer and director Janet Mock filed for divorce from Aaron Tredwell after three years of marriage. The reason cited was irreconcilable differences.
“Aaron and I have decided to part. I’m grateful for the years we shared and will look back on them fondly,” she said in an exclusive statement to Out. “I appreciate your well wishes as we continue onward separately with enduring reverence.”
In a new conversation with the publication, Janet opened up about the feelings that led her to end her marriage, including wanting to move on from the pressure of being a positive example of a trans woman in a healthy and happy relationship. She told the publication that in reality, she had been unhappy for some time.
“It just became this personal battle of how much am I going to stay [married] out of obligation to this person who supported me,” she said. “I was like, ‘OK, I can’t live for what others want. That’s not what I’m here for.’”
She said she found herself reevaluating why she was staying in the marriage when Pose star Angel Bismark Curiel, whom she directs on the FX series, quizzed her on whether or not she was happy in it. He wanted to know because he was interested in her.
“It began innocently enough. I had just wrapped an episode I was directing and he made me know he was attracted to me in a very jarring way, because I just wasn’t in the [romantic] headspace at all,” she said. “A day later, at one of our first screenings, he asked, ‘Are you happy in your relationship?’ And I just answered, ‘Yeah,’ and then walked away. But it struck me.”
The push she received from Angel wasn’t the reason she filed for divorce, but that nudge, to really acknowledge her feelings about the state of her marriage, was something that helped her. It also led her to start dating Angel. The couple went public this year but first started sharing images and other hints that they were romantically linked last year. These days, they look quite happy with one another.
“You have to be vulnerable in that way all the time, and unafraid. That’s something that I’ve learned through this relationship,” she said. “I wanted more of that challenge and that feeling and that connection.”
Sounds like she got it.
