Rachel Bilson Clarifies Her Orgasm Comments
Rachel Bilson is looking back on a difficult moment in her career.
The O.C. alum recalled the time in 2023 when she was fired after making candid confessions about her sex life on the Women On Top podcast, explaining that she didn’t think her comments were so outrageous at the time.
“You’re talking like, basically with girlfriends and you’re joking around,” Rachel shared on Nicole Byer’s Why Won’t Date Me podcast Sept. 19, “and I said something like, ‘I like to be manhandled.’”
As the 44-year-old noted, she had plenty of folks who agreed with her remark, like the 83-year-old mother of her Bright Ideas podcast cohost Olivia Allen.
“She was like, ‘I like to be manhandled!’” Rachel said with a laugh. “You know? Like everyone could relate.”
However, the Hart of Dixie actress—who shares daughter Briar, 10, with ex Hayden Christensen—felt that it was her use of the word “manhandled” and how it was taken out of context that ultimately cost her a job.
“It didn’t sound great,” she confessed. “But I think it was a very conservative company so they weren’t comfortable just talking about sex at all. In general.”
Rachel admitted that while she did “want to fight it,” she was still able to see both sides of the firing.
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“When you take something out of context and you just read something as a standalone comment, thought, whatever,” she added, “it can come off a certain way.”
Plus, the experience has changed the way that Rachel shares details about her life.
“I definitely felt myself filtering a little bit after that,” she explained. “Cause like, ‘Oh my god, if I say this am I gonna lose this job? Am I gonna be judged? Shamed?’”
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At the time, Rachel had also discussed her firing on her Broad Ideas podcast saying, “This is the first time it’s ever happened to me in my professional life that I lost a job this week because of things that were said.”
She added that she was “baffled” by the move, saying, “A single mom, a woman, lost a job because they were being candid and honest and the subject was sex.”
And while she admitted that maybe she would have said it differently knowing a job was on the line, she noted, “I still wouldn’t not say it.”
For more times when Rachel’s confessions were NSFW, keep reading.
The Big O
Rachel Bilson wasn’t afraid to make a shocking revelation about her sex life during a March 2023 episode of her Broad Ideas podcast, confessing that she had never experienced an orgasm from sexual intercourse until she was well into her 30s.
The reveal came after The O.C. star’s guest Whitney Cummings shared that her sex drive had increased since going off birth control. “I have not had an orgasm from sex until I went off birth control,” Cummings said. “Never had it in my life until I turned 40, but I could do it with my hands.”
Bilson, 41, related to Cummings’ experience, admitting that she didn’t experience an orgasm until she was 38. “Isn’t that crazy?”
Rachel also noted that she had previously gotten it done on her own, but “not with, like, dick inside.”
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Fro NYFW: The Shows
Playing Favorites
Bilson continued to dish out bedroom confessions when she revealed her go-to sex position in a May 2023 episode of the Women On Top podcast.
“I’ve learned that if you want to have an orgasm during sex, you have to be on top,” Bilson shared. “Missionary is my favorite. I want to be f–king manhandled.”
The Jumper actress went on to reveal the position she tries to avoid is doggy style, with Bilson explaining that it depends on “the actual dick” because “it can go so deep and hurt.”
Instagram/Rachel Bilson
No Regrets
Shortly after sharing her thoughts on sexual positions, Bilson revealed during the May 15 episode of Broad Ideas that she suffered professional fallout from her candid conversation.
“This is the first time it’s ever happened to me in my professional life that I lost a job this week because of things that were said,” she explained, “I basically got a job, that I already had, pulled from me because I was speaking openly about sex.”
Noting she was “floored” by the move, Bilson admitted losing the opportunity “sucks,” but she didn’t regret anything she shared.
“I haven’t said anything inappropriate,” she stressed. “Choice of language, if I could go back, now knowing I lost a job, maybe I would say it differently. But I still wouldn’t not say it.”
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Ex Marks the Spot
When asked what she missed most about ex-boyfriend Bill Hader, who she dated from late 2019 to the summer of 2020, Bilson made quite the large revelation.
“His big dick!” she quipped on her podcast’s Aug. 15 episode, before adding to her producers, “You can keep that. Oh, that’s funny.”
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No Holding Back
While some stars try to keep details of their love life private, Bilson’s never been one to shy away from talking about her romantic interests on her podcast.
In a June 2022 episode, the Hart of Dixie alum told her guest Aubrey Plaza that she and Hader had previously dated, which was a revelation to The White Lotus star despite the fact that the three actors had co-starred in the 2013 comedy The To-Do List. Bilson’s response? “I went with him to the f–king Golden Globes.”
Instagram/Rachel Bilson
Hurts Like a Mother
During her intimate chat with Mandy Moore in a June 2022 episode of Broad Ideas, Bilson—who shares daughter Briar Rose Christensen, 8, with ex Hayden Christensen—opened up about “a really hard breakup” she endured during the pandemic without naming names.
“I could not leave my house, you know what I mean?” she shared. “I had nothing else to do but sit in it, and deal with it and feel it. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, harder than childbirth.”
While Bilson added that the split “hurt like a motherf–ker,” she explained that facing the breakup helped her move on. “You can come out of it and be like, ‘Okay, I did that and I’m ready for the next thing.'”
Life Imitating Art
While The O.C. fans were watching the love triangle play out between Summer, Seth (Adam Brody) and Anna (Samaire Armstrong) during the Fox teen hit’s first season, Bilson revealed that there was romantic drama going down behind the scenes among the trio.
On the Welcome to The O.C., Bitches! rewatch podcast, she admitted she was “a little jealous” when Brody and Armstrong kissed in an early episode.
“It was like the real-life triangle playing out as I’m watching it,” Bilson, who dated Brody for several years before they broke up in 2007, recalled. “I feel like it definitely played out a little bit in real life for a minute, even though not really really. But I remember the tension with Samaire and I, like, a little bit.”
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Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby
Given that her mother Janice is a sex therapist, Bilson has always had a comfort level with discussions others may find uncomfortable.
“Growing up in a household that was so sex-positive and free and candid…definitely made me more obviously open talking about things,” she told Yahoo! Life’s The Unwind series in July. “These are the things women go through, and there’s nothing connected to it that feels like, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t be talking about this.”
And it’s why Bilson launched the Broad Ideas podcast with her best friend of 25 years, Olivia Allen, in 2022. On the show, she welcomes a variety of guests to discuss a range of broad topics, including sex, infidelity, and mental health, free of filters or fake niceties.
“I’m a little more unhinged, but it’s nice to be able to feel free with it,” Bilson told E! News at the time. “Authentic is the better word and I think people are craving it more than ever.”
Explaining she wanted to provide a “safe space” for women to share their experiences, Bilson said she wanted the podcast to feel similar to a weekly hangout with “true friends” that don’t judge one another.
“It’s just having these soul sisters that you can go through everything with that have been there through everything and will never judge you,” she said. “It just felt like my best friends and I are always having these conversations, why not make that the norm?”
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