Celebs Who Have Practiced Celibacy

Sex is a serious topic, even in Hollywood. Although there are numerous celebs whose sex appeal has made them notoriously famous or wealthy — not to mention the beliefs that the entertainment industry is the central destination of sex and rock 'n' roll — there are several famous people who surprisingly decided to remain celibate at some point in their lives ... until they met that one special person. 

Whether it was because of religious reasons, disdain for the groupies and temptation that lurk in the industry, or personal conflicts — or it was an alternative path after a string of failed romances and distressing heartbreaks — here are 14 celebrities, including pop stars, R&B princesses, A-list actors, and a self-proclaimed "Queen of Rap," who promised to remain celibate. You may even be shocked to hear about the benefits that some celebrities said came as a result of their pledges, and you'll be shocked once again when you learn who left their plans in the dust.

LisaRaye may be known as a sex symbol thanks to her steamy roles in productions like The Players Club or Single Ladies, but, behind the scenes, she's sticking to chastity. In a 2013 interview with Cocoa Fab, the actress said she preferred to make a non-sexual connection with her future partner first before giving up her goods.

"I'm in a new place. I've tried everything but celibacy, and I really want to know what it feels like to be touched by someone with a mental touch and not a physical touch," she told the site. "I want to know what it is to build the foundation of the friendship for real, to have my best friend and not because we're just intimate, but because we're mentally intimate."

At the time of this writing, the actress doesn't have any reported love interests, so our guess is that she's still standing by her pledge until she finds that special someone.

Though the dancer admitted to CosmoGIRL! that she had been tempted to give into premarital sex, Julianne Hough ultimately believes that the key to a prosperous, long-lasting relationship is to abstain from sex no matter what.

"I think [the choice] to have sex before marriage is an individual one, but if you're just with one person, it's only for one good reason, and [waiting to have sex] will strengthen that relationship," she explained to the outlet in 2008 (via People). She continued, "I'm not trying to preach consequences here, but I think when you say no, down the line it will be a better decision."

In 2015, Hough got engaged to her long-time boyfriend, NHL player Brooks Laich, and in 2016 she confessed to Cosmopolitan that they had already gotten busy — on the phone, at least! We bet that when they finally tied the knot in 2017, they couldn't keep their hands off each other.

After struggling with his own personal afflictions, Mario decided to focus on himself and be "just a friend" with the ladies in his life. In 2013, he told Hot 97:

"I was celibate for almost a year. It works. It strengthens your spirit. I mean more than anything, when you really start to understand the physical experience that we have as individuals, you understand that the spirit is way stronger than the physical but if you feed your physical more than [the mental], that's going to dominate."

He also claimed that his pledge bettered his career and his personal relationships, concluding, "So, I experimented with that and it's something that I really wanted to go to a higher level spiritually. I felt like it would affect my music differently. It would affect my career, my surroundings, the people, and it has."

He wouldn't say who the lucky woman was who ended his streak, but he added that the experience was "great."

After breaking up with Lil' John Roberts, her ex-drummer and the father of her son, Jett, Jill Scott decided to take a pledge of celibacy to find the right guy. Apparently, according to Us Weekly, the "Golden" singer had made a history of getting "caught up in the flesh" and wasn't "allowing someone to get to know the best parts of me."

However, her vow was short-lived. In 2011, she revealed that she had tossed it "out the window," but she was at least committed to putting off intimacy until the fifth date.

"Now the minimum is until the fifth date," she explained to the publication. "The whole celibacy thing, you could throw that out the window. That's over. But I don't have physical intimacy until at least the fifth date. So I can get to know who I'm dealing with and they can get to know me."

Sounds pretty fair to us.

Tamera Mowry-Housley's resume is pretty impressive. She starred in super successful productions like Sister, Sister and Stitches, both of which launched her to household-name status. She dabbled in the music industry, releasing the song "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!" in 1992 to favorable reviews. And at the time of this writing, she's a co-host on the Emmy award-winning daytime talk show The Real. In hindsight, it seems like she was able to attain a massive amount of success in a short period of time, but there was one particular milestone that took her a while to accomplish: losing her virginity.

"I don't know how to explain this, but I'm religious, so I waited until I was 29 to lose my virginity," she explained to Hot 97 in 2013. However, even after waiting so long, the experience still wasn't quite what she thought it would be, and she immediately regretted it. She continued, "And then — you may not understand this — I did it, and then I felt guilty, and then I became celibate until I got married."

But don't let her revelation fool you: Just because she abstained from sex for so long, it doesn't mean that the actress is prudish.  She admitted to her The Real co-hosts that she and her husband, Adam Housley, have their own secret sex tape.

Meagan Good may have rose to stardom for acting in films that casted her as a lusty femme fatale, but, believe it or not, she's a devout Christian who has long believed in the importance of celibacy. Although she wasn't a virgin when she started dating her now-husband Devon Franklin, celibacy was the key to their adorable relationship, as the two waited until their wedding night to go all the way.

When explaining her decision to abstain from sex until marriage, Good told The Christian Post, "We settle for things that we normally wouldn't settle for if we weren't co-dependent on them physically. So I would say the wait helps you come to the space of knowing if this person is really your [spouse] or identifying if they are not your [spouse] and why much quicker."

Both Good and Franklin candidly expounded on their pledge (and their sexual frustrations) in their 2016 book The Wait: A Powerful Practice for Finding the Love of Your Life and the Life You Love.

After meaningless relationships and aching heartbreaks, Jessica White chose to take a vow of celibacy until she met the right person.

"Women nowadays, we connect physically too soon without actually getting to know the person," the model explained in a 2011 interview with Essence. She continued, "If you don't actually give this person your body and then they let you down, there really isn't a great disappointment; not like it would be if you have already connected physically. I started going on that journey, and I thought to myself, you know what, the next man that I give my body to will be the man that God brought into my life." 

She reportedly went on to date R&B heartthrob and hopeless romantic TreySongz, according to Essence, and she told the outlet that the celeb not only brought her closer to God but was her true first love, so you do the math.