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Rosie O’Donnell: ‘Cosmopolitan stopped me from coming out’

By Sam Rigby

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Actress and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell has revealed that Cosmopolitan magazine prevented her from revealing her sexuality in 1992.

She told Marlo Thomas that the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Helen Gurley Brown, removed part of the interview where she had discussed being gay.

O’Donnell explained: “At that time, nobody printed it. “I remember [Editor-in-Chief] Helen Gurley Brown took it out of an interview that [a reporter] had done with me in, like, 1992. He said, ‘Are you gay?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ She took it out…

“She was protecting me because at that time it would’ve been a huge issue, right? So, I think it’s changed a lot. I think it’s much more common and people are much more used to it.

“Being a part of a gay family was not nearly as troubling to my kids as being part of a famous family.”

Ten years later, O’Donnell came out during a show at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York.

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