Oprah Winfrey: 'I'm Not a Lesbian'

For years, Oprah Winfrey has been plagued by rumors that her marriage to Stedman Graham is just a front and the real love of her life is best friend Gayle King. In a new interview with Barbara Walters, Oprah finally addresses the rumors, shooting them down while pointing out that she would proudly tell her fans if she was gay.


"I'm not a lesbian. I'm not even kind of a lesbian," the 56-year-old talk show host tells Walters in her new special, Oprah, The Next Chapter.

"The reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I'm lying," Oprah explains. "That's number one. Number two ... why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life."

During the one-hour special, Oprah gets emotional as she opens up about her friendship with King.

"She is ... the mother I never had," Oprah says. "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.

"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."