Oprah Winfrey ended her final show last week thanking her fans for their support over the last 25 years and acknowledging her massive gay following.
“I thank you for sharing this Yellow Brick Road of blessings,” the talk show queen said. “I thank you for tuning in every day along with your mothers and your sisters and your daughters, your partners, gay and otherwise, your friends and all the husbands who got coached into watching Oprah.
“Many of us have been together for 25 years,” she added of her epic TV run. “We have hooted and hollered together. Had our ‘ah ha’ moments. We ‘ugly cried’ together. And we did our gratitude journals. So I thank you all for your support and your trust in me. I thank you for being as much of a sweet inspiration for me as I’ve tried to be for you.
“I won’t say goodbye. I’ll just say: ‘Until we meet again.’”
Oprah, who is in a long-term relationship with a man, has been dogged by lesbian rumors over her relationship with best friend Gayle King. The pair have always denied the gossip.
Recent LGBT guests on her show have included Ricky Martin, pregnant transman Thomas Beattie, trans supermodel Lea T and chat show host Ellen DeGeneres’ wife Portia de Rossi.
Oprah’s final syndicated show drew her highest ratings in 17 years.
