Getting guests to cry is usually the territory of The Oprah, but when the outgoing talk show queen sat for a Barbara Walters interview, it was Oprah who teared up. Over her totally-not-girlfriend Gayle King.
“She is the mother I never had,” Oprah says of BFF King. “She is a sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don’t know a better person.” One thing she is not: Oprah’s lesbian lover.
“I’m not lesbian. I’m not even kind of lesbian,” insists Oprah, who for much of her national career has been hit with speculation she’s not among the breeder crowd, despite her living with longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham.
Being put in the lesbian group doesn’t upset Oprah because she doesn’t like the label, but because “it must mean somebody must think I’m lying.” And if she was gay? She’d tell you!
meego
She would tell us? Yeah, right!!
~R~
Whether she is or isn’t matters little to me. If she insists that she isn’t then I’m inclined to believe her. I think most of this speculation comes from our camp’s serious desire to have someone with serious power and wealth be openly gay… as if that will validate our existence. It wouldn’t. Frankly, even at this point, it is all specualtion… and saddly, a form of bullying. Let her be. If you want to force someone out of the closet (if they are even in one) go after someone who is anti-gay but enjoying gay prectices (of course… factual evidence would be best in pursuing such an endevor and not “they hang out an aweful lot!”)
JasonYeb
It needs to be made clear it is NOT our community (lesbians, gays in it) outting Oprah and stirring the Oprah is a lesbian jokes and rumors. It’s mainly coming from hetrosexual commediens. Most gay folks realize the hardship in coming out and don’t just out people. This needs to be made clear (that and I don’t know any of my gay friends who don’t love this woman)
drewbrown
Can we put this rumor to rest now?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I kinda sorta always give some creedence to the ole “where there is smoke there is fire”……..In Oprahs case there has been a whole lotta smoke enveloping her and Gayle for decades……
PS: Oprah if you are and you do decide to look at Ellen. Being Gay hasn’t exactaly hurt her career as a talk show host…..
drewbrown
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Did you watch the video of her saying “I am not a lesbian. I am not even a little bit of a lesbian.”? When someone who is one of the most powerful, self-aware, richest women in the world tells you they are not a lesbian multiple times, just believe them. If she were gay, she would have NOTHING TO LOSE by coming out. She is a phenomenal ally to gays and lesbians. She has an exceptionally close relationship with another woman. This does not make her gay. Sheesh… I guess I’m starting to feel Oprah’s frustration!
ron
A complete and obvious lesbian. Like Travolta, she knows being openly homosexual is death to your profit margin when you are attempting to appeal to society as a whole. You can be gay in entertainment but you MUST deny it always. Failure to do so will wind you in the Rupert Everett Hall of Fame. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Hollywood version.
Marcus
@JasonYeb:
I think it’s coming from a little bit of everyone: gay, straight, black, white.
BTW, if she’s not gay, as she says she isn’t, there is no real way to “out” her.
You can’t out people who aren’t in and you can’t out people who aren’t gay.
Joyce
So What! Who cares! She has been a role model for so many. I’m sure that if she was a lesbian, we would have known it years ago. She has always been an advocate to the gay community. I think people just need something to take their mind of Sara Palin! The state of our nation, etc……….
AndrewW
Oprah may not be a lesbian, but she is cheap.
Recently, a group of Billionaires invited Oprah to a meeting because they were going to give away most of their money. Oprah declined. What we are now learning is that Oprah has contributed less than 2% of her annual income to charity.
Oprah received one of the Kennedy Center awards and she said repeatedly how important it was to “give.” She doesn’t.
Marcus M.
I have never once understood this rumor. Rolling my eyes at all those who insist on it.
Jeffree
If Oprah was gay, I believe she’d say so. Not a big fan of hers, but she’s been forthcoming about lots of her personal story. Gayle King, not a lesbian. She has dated both high-profile and not-so-famous men, and hasn’t ever been linked to a woman except for O.
Why do people insist that she must be gay?
Ellen Degeneres is proof that an out lesbian can still have a very successful career & rate highly with daytime TV audiences.
ewe
that woman gets way too much airtime.
alan brickman
Crying is a typical defense mode…
Pip
I believe her but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop laughing at/enjoying the lesbo jokes about her.
Cam
I’m sorry, but she is supposedly in a relationship with a man she’s in love with, yet at almost every event, it’s she and Gail. She and Steadman don’t have kids, they aren’t in a marraige, you would have to assume that you only stay together at that point if you are really in love with each other, since you don’t have kids or legal marraige holding you together. And yet, with this man that she is in love with….she does nothing. Instead she is pretty much only out with Gail.
Whatever, she can say whatever she wants, but if she isn’t gay then how about actually spending some time with the guy you’re supposedly in love with Oprah.
Silver
Is anyone but me bothered by the repeated use of “refudiate” on here? “Refudiate” is not a word. Every time I see it I have to stop and re-read, because it doesn’t even look right. Call me a pedant, but this has to stop.
tjr101
What is it with people and the constant speculation of one’s sexuality? Are all grown, single, childless women lesbians now?
So what if she hangs with Gail all the time? My best friend is a female and I hang with her a lot, I guess I’m straight!
geri
For what it’s worth I feel Oprah is probably bi: as in bi-emotional but mostly or entirely heterosexual rather than bisexual.
Just because she loves her girlfriend Gayle and Gayle loves her doesn’t mean they have sex with each other or even want to have sex with each other.
A lot of men – straight and gay men and even some bisexual men – are so screwed up that they probably find such a relationship vitually impossible to comprehend.
gayperson
Every person that tries to out someone needs a big punch from the bullies that made them feel bad and scared for being gay when they themselves weren’t ready or didn’t know their truth; the punch would remind them that it’s no one’s right, gay or straight to tell THEM what THEIR sexuality is.
She stated clearly she considers her a sister and a mother. I mean seriously, most women do hang out with their girlfriends, mothers, gay besties, etc more than their spouses when they are over the honeymoon stage of their marriage.
And, perhaps, its Stedman who isn’t as social and outgoing etc as Oprah and perhaps Gayle’s husband is the same way–the girls work together and they hang out together.
People just need to spend less time drinking the Haterade and live their own lives and remember what it meant when people were shoving their opinions on their sexuality down your throats.
gayperson
oh, and gay or straight or whatever– Oprah FTW!
Cam
@gayperson: Said…”
Every person that tries to out someone needs a big punch from the bullies that made them feel bad and scared for being gay when they themselves weren’t ready or didn’t know their truth”
_______________________
No, I think every person that acts like questioning whether or not somebody is gay is insulting them needs to look inside and figure out why it is you think it is such an insult. If somebody looked at you and said “Hmmm, I think you’re Sweedish” because you are wearing clothing that looks sweedish and you are eating sweedish food” would that be an insult? No, but if somebody says, I’m getting clues that they are gay, you consider that a horrible thing to say. Why is that? What is it about your life that made “Gay” such an evil thing to say?
matthew
Im suspicious of Stedman, but think Oprahs telling the truth.
gay person
What @Cam:
No reasonable person goes around ‘assuming’ someone is ‘Swedish’ if they are eating Swedish food.
What is it about your life that made you think all gays are the same?
Being gay is a sexuality not a nationality/race/etc. I have no problem being gay nor do I have a problem with all the different types of gays–what does all the different types of gays suggest? Just as there are all types of ‘breeders’ out there, there’s all types of gays out there too.
So, unless you want to be ignorant and start singling out traits some heteros have tagged as being ‘too gay’, your not really makng a valid point.
Oprah+Gayle
It’s not very important to the public IF Oprah is gay or bi, but it is incredibly important for Oprah to maintain her “story.” If she was gay or bi and came out now, she would be admitting to decades of lies and deception. That would ruin her career (money) and that isn’t something she would even consider.
We are left with speculation, tempered by the reality that for Oprah, her money is more important than anything else.
chris
@AndrewW: How many people do you know who give more than 2% of their income to charity?
And 2% of Oprah’s income is hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s a hell of a lot of money to give to charity. She gives plenty.
OrchidIslander
@AndrewW: “What we are now learning is that Oprah has contributed less than 2% of her annual income to charity.”
Exactly how are we learning that? Who supplied the facts and figures to back up your assertion? You supply absolutely no facts whatsoever. Yet, you call her cheap. I think you are the first person I’ve ever heard apply that adjective to Oprah.
Even if she gave 2% of her wealth, that is quite a few millions of dollars and whoever was on the receiving end would probably differ with you – as I do.
Honestly, don’t you have some better point to make about something that really matters?
Spike
I dunno, kids. My BS detector goes off for Travolta and Cruise (and Tyler Perry). But for her? I tend to believe she isn’t lying on this one.
I think as completely and utterly fucked up as Oprah’s family and childhood are/were, I totally buy that Gail has become her family.
thedarkchariot
@Pip:
Exactly. Guys, it’s funny. We can go into why, and all that, but I do believe her but it’s still funny. It’s akin it Joey/Chandler jokes that way back when (for example, the episode where they had a stroller together). At the end of the day, we know they’re straight, but as a gag, cmon, it’s funny.
ewe
saying i am not even kind of lesbian is completely ignorant to bisexuality and oprah is a cunt for being so callous in her glass box.
Carolyn Baker
I think she is asexual.