Was Louis XVI of France gay?

Answer 1

Probably not, since he did have four children with Marie Antoinette. If it was just an heir he wanted, he could have stopped sleeping with her all together after their second child, because then they had a son.

He was very shy towards women and the reason it took him so long to warm up to Marie Antoinette is probably an effect of his childhood. His parents died at a very young age; first his father and 3 months later his mother. He had a difficult childhood because his parents neglected him in favor of his bright and handsome older brother, Louis, duc de Bourgogne, who died at the age of ten in 1761. The sorrow his parents felt at the death of their elder son made it difficult for them to give Louis-Auguste the attention and affection he needed. He was then under the care of duc de La Vauguyon, and received a strict and conservative education from the latter. The duc de La Vauguyon also told Louis XVI over and over again never to trust the Austrians.

That is probably why, when ironically he was given an Austrian bride, he had a lot of trouble warming up to her. Also, he had a problem with his foreskin being to tight so that intercourse was not possible until a surgery made it better.

He and Marie Antoinette were also cousins (10th cousins twice removed); Charles VI of France was ancestor to them both.

The alleged sexual dysfunction was thought to be phimosis. That means the foreskin cannot be pulled back and it can lead to painful intercourse.

According to some accounts, phimosis prevented Louis XVI of France from impregnating his wife, Marie Antoinette, for the first seven years of their marriage. She was 14 and he was 15 when they married in 1770.

Answer 2

He was not homosexual. He had numerous affairs with women.