Tim Gunn has opened up about his celibacy. Speaking on a podcast this week, the former Project Runway host revealed the emotional reason he has not had sex for over four decades.
Tim Gunn has maintained celibacy for over four decades
While appearing on Chelsea Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast, Tim said this week that a previous relationship is the reason he’s been celibate for 43 years.
“I had a very serious nine-year relationship,” Tim recalled. “I loved this person deeply and would have done anything for him.”
The fashion legend went on: “I still remember the night that it all ended. We were in bed … he said to me, ‘I have no patience for you any longer. I want you to leave’.”
“One of the things that he told me that night was that he’d been sleeping with just about everything that walked by,” the 72-year-old explained. “I had been loyal and faithful to him. He was the only person I’d ever been with.”
Something which caused particular stress for Tim during the breakup in the early 1980s was the “advent of AIDS.”
“The self-pity then turned to completely unbridled anger because I thought he may have given me a death sentence,” he continued, commenting on the stigma that surrounded HIV and AIDS at the time. Ultimately, Tim tested negative, but the emotional impact of the split has stayed with him.
“Whenever I was even tempted to engage in something that could become serious with someone, all this would come back like Niagara Falls,” he admitted. “It would just take the desire away.”
The former TV host has no regrets about how his life has turned out, though. “Being celibate and being someone who lives alone was a bit of an adjustment,” he said. “But now, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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