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Oprah says she's not a lesbian

Oprah Winfrey smiles as she listens to remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama as the president and First Lady Michelle Obama host the 2010 Kennedy Center Honorees at a reception in the East Room of the White House before going to the Kennedy Center on December 5, 2010. The recipients for the 33rd annual awards are singer and songwriter Merle Haggard; composer and lyricist Jerry Herman; dancer, choreographer and director Bill T. Jones; songwriter and musician Paul McCartney; and producer, television host and actress Oprah Winfrey. UPI/Gary Fabiano/Pool
Oprah Winfrey smiles as she listens to remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama as the president and First Lady Michelle Obama host the 2010 Kennedy Center Honorees at a reception in the East Room of the White House before going to the Kennedy Center on December 5, 2010. The recipients for the 33rd annual awards are singer and songwriter Merle Haggard; composer and lyricist Jerry Herman; dancer, choreographer and director Bill T. Jones; songwriter and musician Paul McCartney; and producer, television host and actress Oprah Winfrey. UPI/Gary Fabiano/Pool | License Photo

CHICAGO, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey denies a rumor claiming she is a lesbian in an upcoming interview with Barbara Walters to air on ABC.

"I'm not a lesbian," People.com quoted Winfrey as saying.

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"I'm not even kind of a lesbian," she elaborated. "And the reason why (the rumor) irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I'm lying. That's number one. Number two ... why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life."

Particularly vexing, Winfrey said in the interview set for broadcast Thursday, is the fact the lesbian stories focus on her relationship with her longtime platonic friend Gayle King.

"She is ... the mother I never had. She is ... the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person. I don't know a better person," Winfrey told Walters about King. "It's making me cry because I'm thinking about ... how much ... I probably have never told her that. Tissue, please. I now need tissue. I've never told her that."

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