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