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(Trenton, New Jersey) Former New Jersey
Gov. James E. McGreevey revealed during an exclusive interview with Oprah
Winfrey that he first bedded the man who would become a central figure in his
downfall while his own wife was hospitalized for the birth of their child,
according to audience members who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity.
The nation's first openly gay governor told
Winfrey he believed he was in love with the man, said two audience members who
agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because the talk show host asked
them not to divulge the contents of the broadcast.
McGreevey said the encounter was one of countless
lies and betrayals he felt compelled to perpetuate during his rise to power as a
closeted gay man, according to the audience members who attended Tuesday's
two-hour taping of the show in Chicago.
The dozen friends of McGreevey who attended the
taping had to sign confidentiality agreements for Regan Books, which is
publishing McGreevey's political memoir. The hourlong program will be broadcast
Sept. 19, the day McGreevey's much-anticipated "The Confession," hits
bookstores and he embarks on a national book tour.
McGreevey, 49, stunned the nation on Aug. 12,
2004, when he told a live television audience that he had been involved in an
affair with a man and would resign. McGreevey later identified the man as Golan
Cipel, though Cipel repeatedly has denied being gay. The lawyer who represented
Cipel, Allen Lowy, would not comment Wednesday.
The audience members did not reveal other details
about McGreevey's statements on his affair.
McGreevey has been publicly silent since stepping
from the public eye. A Georgetown-educated lawyer, he has quietly pursued
education policy initiatives, including work on behalf of a Kean University
campus in China. He has not returned to the Statehouse for the hanging of his
official gubernatorial portrait, which is sitting in storage.
McGreevey's partner, Australian financial adviser
Mark O'Donnell, also appears on the program. The couple exchange a kiss on the
lips when O'Donnell comes on stage, and McGreevey sits with his hand on
O'Donnell's knee during much of the interview, the audience members said.
Winfrey landed the interview with McGreevey
because of her sense of faith and spirituality, according to friends of the
former governor. McGreevey is said to be a fan of Winfrey's education and
anti-poverty work, two issues to which the former governor is devoting more time
in his post-political life.
In the interview, the audience members said
Winfrey explores McGreevey's lifelong struggle with his sexuality, beginning
when he discovered differences between himself and other boys.
McGreevey recounted going to the library as an
adolescent to look up the word 'homosexual' in a dictionary. When he read terms
like 'perverse' and 'psychiatric disorder' were in the definition, the
Irish-Catholic boy said he realized he didn't want to be that, and he quickly
learned to repress the feelings he knew the church and his community would
abhor, the audience members said.
McGreevey also told the audience of a time at
camp when he overheard other boys referring to him using homosexual slurs. He
said he was devastated that others might have discovered his deeply buried
secret.
The interview also explores how McGreevey managed
a life of deception, how he came out to his wife and parents, how his life is
more authentic today, and what life is like with O'Donnell, whom he refers to as
his "life partner," the audience members said.
Julie Everett, a Cincinnati nurse who attended
Catholic University with McGreevey for three semesters and who was in the
audience Tuesday, praised the former governor's candor on the program.
"I thought he did remarkably well,"
Everett said Wednesday. "He was very honest, forthcoming. He's very much in
touch with his spirit and his spiritual base."
Everett declined to reveal the contents of the
show, saying that the show's staff urged the audience not to talk to the media.
"I thought it was very intimate in the
sharing that he did," she said. "You almost felt privileged to be in
that moment, because it was so private, to be let into that."
©365Gay.com 2006
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