Kristen Stewart on Alicia Cargile: 'I'm just really in love'

LOS ANGELES, July 27 (UPI) -- Kristen Stewart is opening up about girlfriend Alicia Cargile.

The 26-year-old actress discussed her on-again, off-again relationship with Cargile, her former personal assistant, in the September issue of Elle U.K. amid continued speculation about her sexuality.

"Right now I'm just really in love with my girlfriend," the star gushed. "We've broken up a couple of times and gotten back together, and this time I was like, 'Finally, I can feel again.'"

Stewart was previously in a longtime relationship with Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson. She subsequently dated Cargile and singer SoKo, but has refused to define her sexuality in a number of interviews.

"When I was dating a guy I was hiding everything that I did because everything personal felt like it was immediately trivialized, so I didn't like it," the star told Elle. "We were turned into these characters and placed into this ridiculous comic book, and I was like, 'That's mine.'"

"It changed when I started dating a girl," she said. "I was like, 'Actually, to hide this provides the implication that I'm not down with it or I'm ashamed of it,' so I had to alter how I approached being in public. It opened my life up and I'm so much happier."

Stewart had declared in the May issue of Variety that she's "not hiding" her relationships with women. The actress said it's "really important" to her that young fans see who she's dating and know that she's being her genuine self.

"As much as I want to protect myself, it's not about hiding," she said. "As soon as you start throwing up so many walls, you cannot see over them yourself, so you just start isolating in a way that's not honest. I definitely found where I'm comfortable."

Stewart last starred in Woody Allen's Café Society with Jesse Eisenberg and Blake Lively. The actress will next appear in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk with Chris Tucker and Garret Hedlund.