Former Project Runway judge Tim Gunn was interviewed on the Dear Chelsea podcast, where he was very frank about his choice to remain celibate for the last 43 years.
“How long have you been celibate, Tim?” Handler asked him.
“I’ve been in New York for 42 years. 43 years.” Gunn responded.
“Wow. So, this was a choice that you made?” Handler followed up.
“Yes. I had a very serious nine-year relationship in Washington, D.C., and I loved this person deeply and would have done anything for him,” Handler asked Gunn.
“I still remember the night that it all ended. We were in bed watching M*A*S*H … and he said to me, ‘I have no patience for you any longer. I want you to leave.’”
“… And I left… I was beside myself with self-flagellation and self-pity, and it was awful. And this is someone I worked with, so it wasn’t as though I just would never see him again,” continued Gunn.
“And one of the things that he told me that night was that he’d been sleeping with just about everything that walked by, and I had been loyal and faithful to him. He was the only person I’d ever been with. And this is the advent of AIDS. It’s 1982.”
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“So, the self-pity then turned to completely unbridled anger, because I thought he may have given me a death sentence. And I was tested every 6 months for 10 years for HIV, and thankfully I had a clean slate.”
“Thank God,” sighed Handler.
“But whenever I was even tempted to get into something serious with someone, all this would come back like Niagara Falls, and it would just take the desire away,” said Gunn.
“And I have to say, being celibate and being someone who lives alone was a bit of an adjustment. But now I wouldn’t have it any other way,” concluded Gunn.