Some might have seen one of Jodie Foster’s early interviews — it was 1979, she was 17 at the time — in which she is asked whether she has a boyfriend and “what kind of fella” she likes.

A young Foster handled heteronormativity and being sexualized like a pro, not losing her cool over the questions from reporter Bobbie Wygant. That clip took on a second life in recent years, when Foster’s eloquent facial expressions have been at the center of a “gay silence” meme.

Decades after that interview, the two-time Oscar winner is known as Hollywood’s LGBTQ+ royalty, but she has struggled to maintain her life and relationships private in an ever-prying business.

Jodie Foster Was Outed In 1991

Jodie Foster has entered the entertainment industry when she was very young, making her acting debut at age 5.

After booking roles in TV shows and films, she had her big break playing child prostitute Iris Steensma in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

She didn’t stop there, continuing appearing in critically acclaimed titles, including The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs, for which she won two Academy Awards. She also stepped behind the camera to direct and produce, most recently in movie The Beaver and series Black Mirror and Tales from the Loop.

While Foster’s body of work is well known, her personal life has been kept private for a long time. The actress had to learn how to navigate an insidious industry at a young age, and didn’t feel comfortable sharing parts of herself with the public.

Her reluctance to disclose personal details and distrust in the dynamics of showbiz wasn’t an excess of caution on her part. Growing up in the public eye, her sexual orientation gradually became a subject for media outlets and fans to speculate about. In 1991, several publications printed rumors about Foster’s supposed homosexuality, with some calling her a “closeted lesbian”.

Foster kept quiet, letting her work speak for her and living her life away from the spotlight.

Jodie Foster’s Relationships

In 1993, the star began a romance with producer Cydney Bernard. The two stayed together until 2008, and had two sons together, Charlie and Kit.

Despite being in a long, committed relationship since the early 1990s, Foster only acknowledged Bernard in 2007 in a speech at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment event honoring her. In her speech, Foster thanked her loved ones, including “my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss”.

In 2013, Foster gave the famous “coming out” speech at the Golden Globes, where she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award. At the time, she and Bernard had gone their separate ways, focusing on co-parenting Charlie and Kit. In the speech, the actress cracked jokes about coming out, then revealing she was “single” and hinting at her being queer, thought without disclosing much else about her sexual orientation.

“I’m just going to put it out there, right? Loud and proud, right? So I’m going to need your support on this. I am single. Yes I am, I am single. No, I’m kidding — but I mean I’m not really kidding, but I’m kind of kidding,” she said on stage.

“Seriously, I hope you’re not disappointed that there won’t be a big coming-out speech tonight because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age, in those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually, proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met. But now I’m told, apparently that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show.”

The actress gradually warmed up to the idea of sharing more of her private life with fans and fellow celebrities, with her acceptance speech at the 2021 Golden Globes being proof of a slight change of heart.

Jodie Foster Kissed Her Wife At The Golden Globes

In 2021, the star won the Globe for Best Supporting Actress in The Mauritanian during a hybrid ceremony, with some nominees attending remotely. Foster was at home with her wife, actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison, who she had married in 2014 after a year of dating. They were both wearing silk pajamas, their dog Ziggy snuggled up to them.

“I love my wife, thank you Alex!” the actress said in her speech, before sharing a kiss with her (and thanking NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers).

This iconic display of coolness and queer joy sent fans in a frenzy, with many taking to social media to comment on such a power move.

Earlier in the award season, Hedison had taken to her Instagram to post a picture of her photographing Foster.

“What happens in quarantine stays in quarantine. Every day I’m a proud wife but today you get a special shout out in the remote land of IG,” Hedison wrote in the caption, adding: “I’ll have to show you my phone for you to see this but still…I’m shouting from the rooftops.”

Foster doesn’t have social media, but she pops up on her wife’s feed for a sweet tribute from time to time. And it’s heartwarming to see.