Oprah Winfrey may be one of the most powerful and influential figures in entertainment and media, but she’s also one of the most transparent. The legendary talk show host has been candid about nearly every aspect of her life, from her struggles with weight loss to her painful experiences with sexual abuse and her diagnoses of thyroid conditions. She’s also been open about her sexuality, making it clear that, despite the rumors, she is not queer.
But don’t get it twisted. Oprah has been a long-standing, ride-or-die ally of the LGBTQ+ community. Back in 1988, her show started celebrating National Coming Out Day, way before it was trendy. “I wanted to create a space, a safe space, to bring the lives and the profound stories of the LGBTQ community front and center to our audience,” Oprah said at the 35th GLAAD Media Awards, where she was given the Vanguard Award. “My intention at the time was to make it clear that every single person who comes to this planet deserves the right to love the person they want to love and be the person they most fully want to be.” It’s no wonder she was honored for her unwavering support. As Oprah herself put it, “Every single person wants the same thing — and that is the desire to feel seen and to know that what we say matters and to know that we matter.”
But as much as she stands with the LGBTQ+ crowd, Oprah’s made it very clear she’s not part of it. Her longtime friendship with Gayle King has fueled endless speculation that she’s secretly a lesbian, but Oprah’s been shutting that rumor down for years.
Oprah insists she’s not even ‘kind of lesbian’
For nearly as long as Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King have been friends —and that’s going back decades — rumors have swirled about them being more than just besties. The two first met in the 1980s when they were young journalists working in the same Baltimore newsroom. Their friendship has only flourished since, but so have the whispers about the true nature of their relationship.
Oprah squashed the rumors once and for all during a 2010 interview with Barbara Walters, and she didn’t mince words. “I’m not a lesbian … I’m not even kind of a lesbian,” she said. “And the reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I’m lying. That’s number one. Number two, why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life.” The Oscar winner revisited the topic during an appearance on Melinda French Gates’ YouTube series “Moments That Make Us,” saying that people just aren’t used to seeing a “truth bond” between two women. Instead of tearing each other down, they’ve built each other up. “Gayle is happier, not happy, but happier for me for any kind of success or victory or challenge I get through than I am for myself,” she explained. “And I feel as happy as she does.”
And as for her actual romantic life? For years, Oprah’s heart had only belonged to one man: Stedman Graham. Together since 1986, they’ve never tied the knot, but Oprah insists he’s the one. “I do not know of another man on this planet who could have lived this life with such dignity, with such grace and such respect and humility in it,” she told Walters (via Today). “And still hold his own and be his own.”
