Janelle recently did an interview with The Cut where she discussed her career and musical inspiration. While speaking to the publication, she shared that she is recovering from a recent bout of mercury poisoning. Monáe attributed the sudden downturn in health to her pescatarian diet. ICYMI: A pescatarian diet is similar to a vegetarian diet, except it allows for the consumption of fish and seafood, according to WebMD. 

Although she didn’t share any further details about the incident, the incident did bring about one realization.  “I started feeling my mortality,” Monáe.  

Monáe further shared that she hopes to start a family one day soon, although she’s not sure when. Right now,  she's trying to find the right time in her career to step back and have a child. Monáe previously discussed wanting to start her own family, telling Fault Magazine in 2018 that her biggest fear in life was missing the chance to have kids.

“I want to have children, but I don’t want to miss that time because I was so focused on my career and because I didn’t plan accordingly,” she confessed. “That scares me most now more than anything.”

As for her love life, she prefers to keep that part of her life private. When asked if she was dating at the moment, Monae supplied, “I don’t talk about the folks I’m dating.” However, it’s long been rumored that she’s dating actress Tessa Thompson, who seemingly confirmed their relationship in a 2019 Net-A-Porter interview where she also came out as bisexual. 

“We love each other deeply,” Thompson told Net-a-Porter. “We’re so close, we vibrate on the same frequency. If people want to speculate about what we are, that’s okay. It doesn’t bother me.”