How Kate Winslet's 24-Year Marriage Was 'Rocked' by One Very Raunchy Admission From 'Titanic' Star

Kate Winslet has reignited debate about intimacy, identity and marriage after candidly revealing some of her earliest sexual experiences were with women – an admission sources tell OK! is now reverberating through her long-term relationship with her third husband, Edward Abel Smith.

The disclosure emerged during a recent appearance on the "Team Deakins" podcast, where the Titanic star, 50, reflected on her teenage years and her role in Heavenly Creatures.

Winslet, who has been married three times and shares children with all three former partners, spoke openly about curiosity and vulnerability in adolescence, remarks that insiders say prompted difficult but honest conversations at home.

The actress said: "I'll share something I've never shared before. Some of my first intimate experiences as a young teen were actually with girls."

She continued: "I'd kissed a few girls, I'd kissed a few boys but I wasn't particularly evolved in either direction."

The comments were made while discussing her connection to Heavenly Creatures, the 1994 film she shot at age 17.

Winslet went on to explain how the intensity of the film's central relationship resonated with her younger self.

"But at that stage in my life, I certainly was curious, and I think there was something about the really intense connection that those two women have that I profoundly understood," she said. "I was so immediately sucked into the vortex of that world they were in that obviously became horrendously damaging to both of them."

Winslet added: "And whilst of course I couldn't truly understand that part of it, I could certainly understand how influenced a young person's mind can become by just one other person when you're so, so vulnerable."

Sources close to the outspoken A-lister say the honesty of the admission was felt deeply within her marriage.

One insider told us: "Kate and Edward have been together for 24 years and built their relationship on trust, but hearing her speak so openly about formative sexual experiences inevitably stirred emotions. It didn't damage the marriage, but it certainly rocked it from his point of view, and forced some very real conversations."

Winslet has previously spoken about how filming Heavenly Creatures marked a turning point in her life, a point she reiterated during her recent podcast chat.

"I know I came back a different person, because I'd evolved so much in my learning and life experience and being in that wonderful country," she said.

Friends say revisiting the period publicly has been both liberating and unsettling.

Winslet, who shares daughter Mia Honey Threapleton with first husband Jim Threapleton, son Joe Alfie Mendes with second husband Sam Mendes and son Bear Blaze Winslet with Smith, has long guarded her private life.

A source said: "Kate has always been fiercely protective of her family unit. This wasn't about rewriting her marriage – it was about telling the truth about who she was before it ever began."

Winslet also spoke about her uneasy relationship with being a celebrity. "I'd much rather be in the shadows of the trees just making art with friends and having a great time that way," she said. "And the other side of the job, which is the exposure that has come hand in hand with the career that I have had, I've always been slightly at odds with that. I always feel as though fame kind of came and found me – I actually didn't go searching for it, not in an ambitious way."

Another source said the reaction at home from her husband, 47, was ultimately constructive. "Edward understands that Kate's story didn't start with him. What mattered was her honesty. It opened a door to deeper understanding rather than resentment."