Getty Images | Ian Gavan

Kristen Stewart Talks About Her Relationship With Robert Pattinson

Eleven years after the first Twilight movie hit theaters, Kristen Stewart has decided to open up about her incredibly public relationship with Robert Pattinson.

From adoring fans to the now-President of the United States, everyone had an opinion on their relationship.

But what did they think of that time in their lives? What was happening behind closed doors? Now, we finally know.

So, a refresher:

Hollywood Life

Kristen and Robert met on the set of Twilight in 2008.

The timeline for when they started dating is a little muddled, but most guesses put it at late 2008/early 2009.

They denied they were together for a long, long time.

Digital Citizen

She said that she refused to comment on whether or they were together because of how tired she was of being asked.

"I probably would've answered it if people hadn't made such a big deal about it," she told Entertainment Weekly.

They broke up in 2012.

YouTube | Vanity Fair

I think we all remember this insanely public breakup.

Kristen was photographed cheating on Robert with another man. The media was obsessed with the breakdown of their relationship, to the point where it got super uncomfortable.

Well, in my opinion, at least.

Now, Kristen has decided to speak on their relationship.

She sat down with Harper's Bazaar to discuss Charlie's Angels, her sexuality, and her relationship with Robert — especially how hard it was to be in the spotlight while trying to maintain a relationship.

They were flying blind at the beginning.

YouTube | MTV

She was only 18 at the time that she and Robert got together at the height of Twilight's fervor.

"When me and Rob were together, we did not have an example to go by," she said.

In a sense, they had no privacy.

YouTube | Cineplex

So they refused to talk about their relationship to the media.

"So much was taken from us that, in trying to control one aspect, we were just like, 'No, we will never talk about it. Never. Because it’s ours."

They were under constant scrutiny.

Getty Images | Ian Gavan

This was especially hard for Kristen, who didn't know how to handle fame.

"[...] people get mad at you because you’re in such a grand position, so if you don’t hold that up, you don’t deserve it."

She just wanted to work.

The glamour of being a celebrity wasn't as important as the actual work was.

"I never valued the fame thing as much as I valued the experiences I got to do while working, and it perplexed me so much..."

She thinks fame is very different now.

Flickr | La_Biennale

Where she was constantly hounded, she thinks young actors these days have far more control over their lives.

"They have this insane agency," she said. "And the confidence! That is baffling! I’m like, how are you so confident? You’re so young!"

The past obsessed with her life and relationship made her hate interviews.

Now that she's older, though?

"I used to sit in interviews and go, 'God, I wonder what they’re going to ask me,' but now – literally – you can ask me anything!"

It must be nice to not be asked who she's dating constantly, too.

The freedom of growing older allowed her to open up about her sexuality.

Her past instinct of holding every detail of her personal life close to the vest impeded her in a lot of ways. Coming out was a way to change that.

"I think I just wanted to enjoy my life. And that took precedence over protecting my life, because in protecting it, I was ruining it."

That instinct was taught to her at a young age.

"I was informed by an old school mentality, which is – you want to preserve your career and your success and your productivity, and there are people in the world who don’t like you, and they don’t like that you date girls, and they don’t like that you don’t identify as a quote-unquote "lesbian", but you also don’t identify as a quote-unquote "heterosexual".

And people like to know stuff, so what the [expletive] are you?’"

She used to be told being in the closet would get her jobs.

Flickr | celebrityphotosdaily

"I have fully been told, 'If you just like do yourself a favor, and don’t go out holding your girlfriend’s hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie."

I am unsurprised that she used Marvel as the reference here. Also, disappointed! In Marvel, that is.

Things are different now.

"I just think we’re all kind of getting to a place where – I don’t know, evolution’s a weird thing – we’re all becoming incredibly ambiguous.

And that's a really gorgeous thing."

Amen.

She's learned a lot from her past.

She'll be directing her first feature film, an adaptation of the memoir, The Chronology of Water.

She's excited to get started. "The thing that’s really igniting me is the idea of starting the ball rolling – and not being the ball."