During Renée Zellweger‘s recent sit down with The Advocate to talk about her new movie “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” the subject of those old gay rumors about ex-husband Kenny Chesney came up.
Zellweger and Chesney married in 2005. Zellweger cited “fraud” as the reason for having the marriage annulled after just four months, spurring speculation and rumors that Chesney might be gay.
Related: Country Music Is Gay-Friendly – Unless You Actually Want To Be A Country Singer
“I forgot about that. It’s a pretty big thing to forget, isn’t it?” Zellweger said when asked about the rumors. “That made me sad. It made me sad that somehow people were using that as a way to be cruel and calling someone gay as a pejorative, which has fateful consequences. Of course, there’s the bigger-picture problem of why anyone had to make up a story at all.”
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So did she feel pulled to rush to his defense?
“Well, I’d said all I needed to say on that subject,” she said. “I’m an old-fashioned gal who doesn’t feel it’s appropriate to hang out your laundry on the lawn. I feel you devalue yourself as a human being when you share very personal things with a bajillion strangers who are making fun of you. I just don’t see that there’s any dignity in that. But sometimes it is difficult to just let something be what it is, especially when it’s unnecessary ugliness. Once you’ve said your piece, shouldn’t that be enough? And why is the ugliness that’s perpetuated in the media so attractive to people?”
Related: Zachary Quinto Offers Gallant Defense Of Renée Zellweger’s Appearance
Chesney commented on the rumors in an interview with Playboy in 2009.
“What guy who loves girls wouldn’t be angry about that? I didn’t sign up for that,” he said. “I think people need to live their lives the way they want to, but I’m pretty confident in the fact that I love girls (laughs). I’ve got a long line of girls who could testify that I am not gay.”
Zellweger also talks gay best friends, both on and off screen, playing with lesbian subtext in “Cold Mountain,” and her connection to the LGBTQ community in the interview, which you can read in full here.
Bob LaBlah
Personally I would have preferred to read about the life of the late The Lady Chablis, who passed away yesterday in Savannah, Ga. I am assuming Queerty will get around to finding her obituary.
Brian
It’s usually gay-identifying men who use the word “gay” in a negative sense with fatal consequences. There are tons of homophobic gay men in society.
Rob91316
I didn’t hear a “No, he’s not gay,” anywhere in Zellweger’s incoherent rant, nor any explanation EVER of the grounds for “fraud” she used to successfully annul her marriage to Chesney. What I’m left to deduce from that is, yes, Chesney IS, in fact, a closet case.
markgtx11
@Rob91316: I agree. It’s an empty answer. All she stated was that it was sad that people use being gay as an insult. I agree, but that doesn’t speak to the issue or respond to the question. Her response just makes it more obvious that Kenny’s primary residence is in Narnia.
Giuseppe
Renee never said Chesney wasn’t gay, the allegation of “fraud” was hers and this non-denial piece of nothing is coming from someone that can’t even admit that she had her eyes done. Go away Renee.
MMDD
If Chesney is gay and if he ever comes out, he knows his career in country music will come to a screeching halt. No way is a gay person ever going to be accepted in that backward, grab-you-a-girl-and-do-her-in-the-bed-of-your-pickup-truck, homophobic genre. Look at what happened to Chely Wright.
Curtispsf
Just walk away, Renée
You won’t see me follow you back home
The empty sidewalks on my block are not the same
You’re not to blame
glennr
OMG just look at him. He is always shirtless, has a body of death, has talent and is just so good looking. Plus the fact is that you never see him in the press out with all these ladies he claims will go to bat for him. I think he is gay but wants to keep it under wraps because of his career and we will have to deal with a 60 year old Kenny coming out at a later stage in his life which always annoys me. But when you get down to it, it is his choice as to when and if he chooses to come out.
robho3
@Brian: homophobic gay men like yourself?
robho3
@Rob91316: I think Renee might have some mental issues stemming from her face transplant surgery. If that even really is her.
DCguy
@Curtispsf: Left Bank reference, awesome.
As for Chesney, only married a few months, annulled with an accusation of Fraud, never seen dating a woman, never married again, and wears sleeveless shirts and a cowboy hat……yeeeah.
As for Zellweger, she just sounds scattered and not all there.