Tim Gunn explains why he is been celibate for 43 years

Tim Gunn is aware of what he desires — and doesn't need.

The style maven and Mission Runway alum has been celibate for 43 years, a life-style selection he opened up about on a latest episode of the Dear Chelsea podcast.

Joking that the total story would "maintain a psychiatrist very busy," Gunn defined that his celibacy stems from "a really critical nine-year relationship in Washington, D.C.," that he had from the mid-Seventies into the early '80s.

"I liked this individual deeply and would have executed something for him, and I nonetheless bear in mind the night time that all of it ended. We had been in mattress watching M*A*S*H. It was the primary run, and he mentioned to me, 'I’ve no persistence for you any longer. I would like you to go away,'" Gunn recalled. "I had my very own condominium, however I had been dwelling with him for years. And I left. I drove to my condominium on Rock Creek Parkway. And I needed to pull off, as a result of I used to be hyperventilating. I used to be beside myself with self-flagellation and self-pity, and it was terrible."

However extra factored into Gunn's determination to take away himself solely from the relationship market than mere heartbreak.

"One of many issues that he advised me that night time was that he had been sleeping with nearly every little thing that walked by," he defined. "I had been loyal and trustworthy to him. He was the one individual I had ever been with, and that is the appearance of AIDS. It's 1982."

In keeping with Gunn, the preliminary "self-pity" he felt reworked, because of the social context, into "fully unbridled anger, as a result of I assumed he might have given me a dying sentence. I used to be examined each six months for 10 years for HIV, and fortunately, I had a clear slate." However when it got here to future sexual and romantic pursuits, "all this might come again like Niagara Falls, and it could simply take the will away."

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Expensive Chelsea host Chelsea Handler joked that she and Gunn had been true "kindred spirits," as she doesn't plan on getting married.

"Think about the funds we may co-mingle," Handler exclaimed, imagining the 2 of them as roommates.

However Gunn mentioned that whereas "being celibate and being somebody who lives alone was a little bit of an adjustment," now many years into it, he "wouldn't have it every other approach."

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Gunn is in good firm within the Hollywood celibacy membership. Lenny Kravitz revealed in 2024 that he hadn't been in a critical relationship in 9 years, and whereas he waits for the suitable individual, he's remaining celibate.

"It's a religious factor," he defined. "I’ve turn out to be very set in my methods, in the way in which I stay."

You possibly can take heed to Gunn's full interview on Expensive Chelsea above.

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