Did you know that Oprah sat down for an “exclusive” one-on-one with Barbara Walters? I kind of get a kick out of that. Babs is old as dirt, and she’s really not a good interviewer (at all), but when Oprah wants to do press, she goes to Babs. Anyway, details about their interview have been leaking out for the past few days (ABC News has done the leaking), and apparently, Oprah let Babs ask her ANYTHING. Including questions about those lesbian rumors.
The rumors have been around for years. She even made light about them recently. But Oprah Winfrey has once again stated flatly: “I’m not a lesbian.”
“I’m not even kind of a lesbian,” the talk-show queen, 56, tells Barbara Walters in an upcoming interview on ABC. “And the reason why [the rumor] 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 rumors have focused on Winfrey’s friend Gayle King. But Winfrey says that relationship is extremely close in a whole different way.
“She is … the mother I never had. She is … the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don’t know a better person. I don’t know a better person,” Winfrey says while choking up.
“It’s making me cry because I’m thinking about … how much … I probably have never told her that. Tissue, please. I now need tissue. I’ve never told her that.”
The occasion for the interview, airing Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC, is the end of Winfrey’s syndicated show next May and the beginning of her new cable network – OWN, The Oprah Winfrey Network.
On that subject, Winfrey admits to having been afraid of how daunting the new project is. “I was very scared,” she says. “I would wake up in the middle of the night literally like clutching my chest, like, ‘What have I done? What have I done?’ ”
[From People]
Do I believe this? Eh. Part of me thinks that if Oprah was a late-in-life lesbian, she really would talk about it. Another part of me thinks that she would get it on with Gayle if it didn’t involve Oprah’s issues with germs.
Here’s the video of Oprah getting choked up talking about Gayle:
And here’s video of Oprah talking about endorsing Obama, and her thoughts on how he’s doing now, and her feelings on whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be president (hint: she doesn’t comment on the last one).
Screepcaps from the interview.
I love her!!!!!
That germs comment is a total knee slap.
I never thought Oprah was gay, I don’t believe she could not talk about if she was. She would have had a show about it. I also don’t think anyone would care if she was. I believe you Oprah 🙂
Lord, those eyebrows.
They look awful. Obviously drawn on.
totally believe her i mean, think of all of the people who would support her if she came out if need be- she would not be hurt by coming out if she wanted to. Due to her messed up background i could see her being super attached to this friend (more than any romantic relationship) since they do NOT have the emotional messiness of sex and stuff to get in the way of things. I dunno. Regardless if she is or not it sucks people keep talking about it. Why we fixate on knowing the sexuality of everyone is beyond me.
Umm… what about those eyebrows?
I am confused why Oprah is called gay for having a best friend.
Practically every female I know, has a very best friend. Someone who we harp to about the nonsense that goes on in our daily life.
So does that make us all gay? No.
I am so tired of the media labeling people. Why does it matter who you have in your bed. I could care less.
I am bored with “everyone is GAY!”.
I am bored with the non stop “Oprah is GAY!” cause she has a best friend.
Geez when did it become gay to have a best friend?
Totally do not care one way or another.
I dont care, either, but I really never bought into the ‘Oprah is gay’ stuff. I just don’t see it. I honestly do not think she would keep it under wraps. This is 2010 – and she’s Oprah for crap’s sake. Is she gonna lose her job? Backlash that would ruin her? Nope. IDK. I believe her when she’s talking about Stedman.
The eyebrows don’t bother me, but I’ve never understood why Oprah has a little dark parenthesis drawn on the outside of each eye. She always has this on her TV shows – I suppose her makeup artist puts it on – and you can see it in all of the photographs above. It’s bizarre.
I am not a fan or hater of Oprah, really. I can take her or leave her. But I do believe in ‘semi-lesbians’. Women who are not inherently gay, but at the same time find the female on female bonds to be more desirable, comfortalbe and equitable than female on male. Perhaps O likes to sex with the Dong, but has no real interest further than that – she gets all of her ‘relationship’ from Gayle.
And I personally don’t see anything wrong with that, or anything wrong with her being all the way lesbian.
I’m with you Jackson,I couldn’t care less if she’s into girls. Maybe 20 years ago this would be newsworthy but now?
The whole “cult of Oprah” is weird but good for her if she has a close and genuine friend. That’s something fame and fortune can’t buy.
#6 what about them Francesca?
As for the gay issue, I don’t care one way or the other.
I believe her! She and Gayle are best friends because Gayle was her best friend before she had money. She is the truest of the true. Oprah trusts her with everything. I have several friends like that. Since, I don’t have Oprah money, that’s all they get…my undying love!
This is where you are wrong. Oprah Winfrey is the ultimate power girl and can be/do whatever the f she wants. She has more money than god and has carte blanche to be on any network in the world to do whatever she pleases. She’s not gay. If she wanted a girlfriend I’m sure she’d have one and tell us all that if we didn’t like it we can go take a hike. I’d be my bank account she is actually in love with Steadman.
Opi looks like she needs a nap STAT
I don’t think Oprah would have a problem saying she is gay, besides Stedman is still with her so it is obviously not true. Gayle is like a sister to her.
I love Oprah and I think her best moments on her show is when Gayle is on because they have such a wonderful friendship. You have to wonder why it is so difficult to understand that women can have friendships that are deep and abiding. I also think that if Oprah was gay she would have no problem saying it.
I think people can only label love as either sexual when it comes to anyone else other than their children. Some people can’t understand that love can be completely non-sexual and entirely from the heart and soul. It doesn’t mean you want to have sex with someone that you say you love. THere are so many levels to love. I believe gayle is oprah’s kindred soul. sometimes your ‘soulmate’ isn’t someone you would have sex with, but a friend, a relative…
@CandyKay – This is a total guess, but I believe they do her makeup that way to a) give that part of her face some definition, much the way they can give someone cheekbones and b) as a way of drawing your eye to her eyes and not the bags under them. Her face is very flat from the profile and quiet round, so it seems to be an effort to contour somehow.
Can’t say if it works or not, but I don’t think she looks bad here (not great, but not bad)
If Oprah’s sexual orientation was lesbian, I think she’d be ‘out’ about it.
However, Oprah seems to have an unusally close and complex emotional relationship with Gayle. . . Maybe O is engaged in a relationship with Gayle that seems emotionally ‘gay’ but not inclined towards the physical side of things?
I’m thinking there’s many many ways to have a relationship which could be classified as neither ‘gay’ nor ‘straight’. It’s just its own thing.
If Oprah’s sexual orientation was lesbian, I think she’d be ‘out’ about it.
However, Oprah seems to have an unusally close and complex emotional relationship with Gayle. . . Maybe O is somehow emotionally ‘gay’ but not inclined towards the physical side of things?
You know, besides the fact that her sexuality is nobody’s business (although I totally believe that she is straight, and understand how she would be hurt by people thinking she is lying), I am really tired of the tendency in our society to accuse strong, powerful women of being lesbians. That makes it seem like there is something wrong with lesbianism, and limits acceptable behavior according to sexual orientation and antiquated ideas about femininity. I can’t wait til we grow the f up as a society.
I didn’t think anyone took those rumors seriously. I thought that was just gossip bloggers being snarky and bitchy.
She is the most egotistical, obnoxious person ever on T.V. I don’t get everyone kissing her huge no-talented behind. I can’t wait til she is off t.v. In my opinion, she is crying because she is lying. She’s a big phoney.
Emotionally gay? Come on. Why can’t it be as simple as true friends are hard to come by and when you add a billion dollars to the mix and super-fame the odds shorten even more. Oprah knows that Gayle is a genuine friend and they get each other.
Don’t a lot of people have best friends that they just love hanging out with, talking about everything and nothing, etc? Why is it strange when the big O has one? Is it because she isn’t married to Stedman?
I actually find “emotionally gay” to be offensive. Gay is who you are and who you’re attracted to. If Oprah says she’s not into girls, she’s not into girls.
If you have an emotional attachment to someone who is your best friend, that’s being a human being. Especially if you’re in a situation like Oprah when you don’t know why people want to be a part of your life and for what reason, someone who is a best friend and a constant is crucial.
I love my boyfriend. We’re incredibly close and have a great time in bed. But when my heart is aching over a boy, or I’m insecure about my career, or I want to talk about why I haven’t pooped in 3 days, I call my best friend.
Honestly, I think this is pretty legit. Not to be cynical or rude, but I think if Oprah were gay, even late-in-life gay, she would come out and use it for ratings or viewership for her show or her new show on the OWN network. I don’t mean that as a dig, but I just feel that this is something she could get a lot of juice out of, and she’s too smart to let it slide.
She became weepy about what an excellent person Gayle is, and about being her best friend, and you twist it to say the lesbian question was part of the weepiness. That just simply isn’t true (that question came later in the interview), and it’s a mark of a crappy reporter to need to use deception to gain interest in the story.
I believe her. This is Oprah. If Oprah were a lesbian, Oprah would say she’s a lesbian and make a big deal out of it.
I agree with @CB Rawks. This isn’t really the first time it has happened on this site though. I’ve noticed a few times that the headlines can be misleading. However, this is a gossip website, we can’t really expect a lot of journalistic integrity. Nonetheless, I agree, it’s annoying.
Can’t stand Oprah and I too don’t care whether she is gay or not.
Not sure why I even bothered to read/comment on this story come to think of it 😆 .
Crying over your love for your gal pal. That’s not any gayer than the eyebrowns.
Oprah’s been known to be disconnected from the truth as well as herself. The only one who doesn’t know it is her and her most hardcore cultists. How many times had she figured out her weight loss and crowned herself Queen of Thin for life and done endless shows celebrating her “getting it” and teaching the world how to do it, only to go back to square one and come back with a new solution years later? Answer: many, many, many times. Oprah is so often spectacularly wrong.
I’m more interested in what she said about the mother she never had. I didn’t realize that she didn’t/doesn’t have a good relationship (if at all) with her mother. That is sad. But, then it does explain her closeness to a woman who might fill that need.
Sad that the gay thing deflects from another serious issue, which might be, how do you cope emotionally if you’ve never had a bond with a mother figure.
A couple of centuries ago we used to have a concept of ‘romantic friendship.’ It’s a very close and emotional, often quite passionate, bond between two friends that is not erotic. I think a lot of times when people think that perhaps they’re gay or bisexual because of how close and attached they feel to a friend, it would be really helpful to still have this concept around, because often that attachment is not sexual but we have no way to even conceptualize it anymore, much less talk about it.
A nice article., thanks for sharing their stuff with us.Faucets
Oprah’s down here in Australia at the moment and it’s all over the news, but I’ve not heard much about her being gay. She seems to be going to all the typical tourist destinations, which is a bit of a yawn. I thought she’d be more interested in the real stuff.
@Hatedoodle; that’s exactly what I was thinking. When we lose a definition of something, we become in danger of losing the actual thing itself too.
In my mind, romantic friendship was a concept that encompasses a whole range of relationships from super-close friendship to, yes, possible homosexuality. But regardless, most of the time (from how it’s been explained historically at least) it seems like most of the relationships were truly just close friendships free from any overt sexual feelings. Of course, Oscar Wilde had some very strong romantic friendships that everyone knew (even back then) were sexual in nature. So yeah. Interesting.
No #33…it’s called being human. I’m sure a large percentage of people on this planet have yo-yo dieted. It’s not a flaw exclusive to Oprah. What makes it more glaring for HER is that she’s been on television, where her successes and failures were well documented. The only thing that separates her from “regular folk” in this regard is that SHE has more money than god.
And count me as another person who believes that if she were a lesbian, she would have had a show about late in life lesbians, at which time she would admit that she was one herself. I’m not casting aspersions here, but this has been her m.o for some time now.
I would rather see Barbara interview Stedman. Bet he has some stories to tell. He has been around forever. I used to laugh at all the stories the National Enquirer used to run, will they get married, won’t they get married, Oprah has another man, they’re back together. its been more than 20 years and she never married him. And yet he still shows up on her arm once in a while. THAT’S the story I want to hear.
As much as I loathe Oprah as a human being, and trust me she is a nasty piece of work, I think its rather insulting for the media to constantly insinuate that she is gay just because she has a close friendship with a woman.
I really admire Oprah and Gayle’s friendship. I hope to have a friendship like that one day. It’s disturbing to me that people find such a friendship puzzling.
This woman could literally tell the United States Gov’t to make gay marriage legal and it would happen like a sign from God, thats how powerful she is. I highly doubt she needs to hide the fact she is a big ol’ dyke. I am happy to say I have a best friend I feel exactly the same way about as she does [unless she is annoying the crap out of me lol] and its very refreshing to see that coming from someone like her [celebrity]
I don’t know if she’s gay or not but I don’t like her. To me she comes across as if she feels we should all worship her.
Oprah is Oprah’s biggest fan.
“As much as I loathe Oprah as a human being, and trust me she is a nasty piece of work,”
Example?
if you had more money than god, just maybe you too will assume everyone should worship you and take your ‘i do not believe in luck’ quote as the mantra to get you through life. People yap about how out of the stone age we are, and civilzation and then blab something as stupid as ’emotionally gay’. Pathetic. Every thing just has to relate to sex somehow. Many people are pervets and they do not even know it.
“The lady doth protest too much methinks”. When I saw that weepy part I couldn’t help but think back too… “I loves Harpo, God knows I do….” As far as her orientation, maybe shes playing for both teams, just sayin. 🙂
Oprah’s eye marks— the parenthesis that are described above are caused by FAT . Like vertical love handles. The fatter she gets they spread and enlarge and go down vertically on each side of her face creating seemingly a double edge that mimic the actual outer edge of her face. They are vertical rolls of fat .They can not light those out. Her over the top eyebrows have to be extended closer together to form a narrow bridge at the top between the fake eyebows inner corners, to make her too small nose look longer and extendded and give her what appears to be a top bridge since she has almost none. Her profile is a disaster —she has no chin .
Poor oprah should accept her fat and stop having everything retouched . For someone who wants everyone to accept themselves and purports to be all about the truth– the fake thin retouched image that she puts out there is outrageous, a lie, and a true glimpse of the fraud I find her to be.