Barry Diller opened up about his sexual orientation in an excerpt from his forthcoming memoir published in New York magazine.
In the excerpt from Who Knew, scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster on May 20, Diller writes, “While there have been a good many men in my life, there has only ever been one woman, and she didn’t come into my life until I was 33 years old.”
Diller, the IAC chairman, Fox Broadcasting Company co-founder, and former Paramount CEO, has been widely rumored for years to be gay or bisexual. The speculation did not end with his 2001 marriage to fashion mogul Diane von Fürstenberg.
“I have never questioned my sexuality’s basic authority over my life (I was only afraid of the reaction of others),” Diller writes in the memoir. ”And when my romance with Diane began, I never questioned that its biological imperative was as strong in its heterosexuality as its opposite had been. When it happened, my initial response was ‘Who knew?’”
Diller writes that he had been scared to come out, but decided to adopt “my own personal bill of rights.”
“I would live with silence, but not with hypocrisy,” he writes. “I would never pose or pretend. I wouldn’t do a single thing to make anyone believe I was living a heterosexual life. I wouldn’t tell, and I wouldn’t allow myself to be asked.”
In the memoir, he reaffirms his love for von Fürstenberg.
“I’ve always thought that you never really know about anyone else’s relationships,” he writes. “But I do know about ours. It is the bedrock of my life. What others think sometimes irritates but mostly amuses us. We know, our family knows, and our friends know. The rest is blather.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
