Sarah Paulson’s relationship with Holland Taylor (who is 32 years her senior) has brought a lot of headlines, and even Sarah herself admits that people find it “fascinating and odd.”

“My life choices are, um, unconventional,” she said to The Edit. “I’m with a much older person and people find that totally fascinating and odd, and, to me, it’s the least interesting thing about me.”

“Early on, when people found out I was with Holland, some said: ‘I think you have to be careful, I’m afraid it’s going to affect your career negatively,'” she recalls. “I was like, ‘What?’ It never occurred to me at all.”

She was even apprehensive to thanking Holland when she won her Emmy: “It occurred to me, ‘Should I not [say I love you to Taylor onstage]?’ And then I thought, ‘Why would I not?’ The fact I’m having this thought is wrong,” she remembers thinking to herself. “But I had a moment of societal concern; wondering if, maybe, people who didn’t know that about me would be like, ‘Wait, what?’ But then, you know, I did it anyway.”

“I am a woman of a certain age who chose not to have children, and who has made my career my priority. I am the captain of my own ship, and I’ve never looked to anyone else to validate that, or tell me it’s OK.”