Insecure actress and comedienne Yvonne Orji has never been shy when it comes to discussing her vow to wait until she gets married to have sex. The actress appeared on an episode of Chelsea Handler’s podcast Dear Chelsea and was asked whether she was still a virgin, to which she answered yes. Orji, 39, jokingly asked listeners to pray for her future partner because the wait has left her with a great deal of “pent-up energy.”
“Let me tell you right now…pray for him, whoever he is; ya’ll need to pray for him because there’s a lot of pent-up energy up in here,” the actress said.
Handler jumped in and added that she may “need a couple of men” when the time comes. The actress, who played Molly in Insecure, responded with a joke saying, “Yvonne went from being a virgin to polyamory.”
Many fans commented on how hard it is to believe Orji is still a virgin especially because of the many sex scenes the actress had in the HBO series. However, she revealed in 2021 that the costume designer on the hit show gave her a rundown about how to make the scenes come across as believable.
“The costume designer watched the first tape and pulled me to the bathroom and said, ‘you got to let the man lead,’ ‘you’re off beat,’ she said. “She gets behind me and she’s doing the emotions… she’s very hands on. Then she’s like, go call him [Langston Kerman] in here. So we practiced in the bathroom. We definitely made sure it looked believable.”
During an interview with PEOPLE magazine in 2017, Orji expanded on her decision to save herself for marriage. “Before any of [the fame] happened, I sat down with myself and with God and thought, When I make it, how do you want me to represent you while I’m here?” Later in the interview, she answered her own question: “It was like, Okay, I know why I’m here. It’s to make you proud.”
The last man she was publicly linked to was Emmanuel Acho, former football star, sports commentator and founder of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. The two announced they were dating in 2018. However, by 2019 they broke up.