New-age musician and former Entertainment Tonight anchor John Tesh has confirmed that he dated Oprah Winfrey back in the 1970’s.
With this in mind, I have decided to come forward and confirm what has long been rumoured. Yes, Oprah and I had a brief May-December romance in the 1980’s. I was a young and impressionable student studying at McGill University in Montreal when I happened to attend a guest lecture that Oprah was presenting—Everyday Can Be Friday– on campus.
I challenged her during the Q & A session, asserting that Tuesday could not be Friday, no matter how hard you tried. An immediate spark was lit, and we passionately debated the matter long into the night, discovering that Oprah and I had a stunning intellectual compatibility and both loved the colour blue.
For almost a year after that, Oprah would fly in from Chicago about once a month, staying with me at my crooked apartment on St. Dennis, or sometimes treating us to a nice hotel room (hot water!) at the Ritz-Carlton. Ours was primarily an intellectual and spiritual union, and as Oprah was significantly older than I was, she was very careful not to pressure me into doing anything I was not ready to do. Of course, I was insanely curious and aflame with passion, wanting nothing more than to devour her, but Oprah would always calm me down, saying in a voice as soft as chocolate and wise as time itself, “hush now child, there’ll be plenty o’ time for that in the future.”
Montreal in the 1980’s was a magical place, and I think in it Oprah found a liberty that was not available to her in America. In Montreal, nobody thought twice about a mixed-race couple, and Oprah and I could walk down the street smoking and holding hands, without a second thought.
The photograph you see of Oprah was taken during our last weekend together. In this picture, which has tremendous sentimental value for me, O is wearing a sweater that I had given to her.*1 She seemed particularly emotional when she put it on, putting her hand on my cheek and calling me her “sweet, little paisley swirl.”
After that, Oprah stopped visiting me in Montreal. We exchanged Christmas cards for a number of years, but eventually those stopped, too, and now all I have are my beautiful memories.
I always suspected that she was gay.
*1. I had bought the sweater at The Bay as a birthday gift for my mother, but it proved to be too large for her, so I gave it to Oprah.