Hayley Kiyoko has recalled her appearance on Wizards of Waverly Place.

During a Monday appearance on the Wizards of Waverly Pod, the Gravel to Tempo singer recounted starring in the Disney Channel series for four episodes in 2010 as Stevie Nichols.

“Those who saw me as Stevie, I had my very specific haircut, so I had this very short pixie cut,” Hayley said of her character. “I remember that haircut was almost like a pigeonhole where I’d go on auditions and people would be like, ‘We just can’t see outside of this look.’ And I was just like, ‘Gosh, I’m just never gonna book anything being myself, looking like myself.'”

She continued, “Wizards of Waverly Place was one of the first opportunities I had to be booked for what I looked like.”

Hayley, who is a lesbian, insisted that she was in the closet at the time of filming the episodes and never intended to bring romantic chemistry between her character and Selena Gomez’s character, Alex Russo.

“I was just, like, naturally very gay,” she joked. “I had no notion or thoughts that there was some kind of, like, undertone or underlying storyline that was going on. When I rewatch the episodes, I see that.”

Wizards of Waverly Place fans later dubbed the relationship between Stevie and Alex ‘Stalex’, indicating a desire for the characters to date. To this, Hayley said, “The lesbian energy was really thriving at that moment.”

In May 2022, Hayley revealed that she was dating former Bachelor contestant Becca Tilley, and had been since 2018. The couple made their red carpet debut in September that year.

– Cover Media