Barry Diller Opens Up About Fluid Sexuality, Marriage to Diane von Furstenberg: ‘We Aren’t Just Friends’

Hollywood kingpin Barry Diller has, for the first time, shared his thoughts on the decades of speculation about his sexuality and his marriage to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg in an excerpt of his upcoming memoir that appeared in New York Magazine on Tuesday.

The former Paramount and Fox boss said that while there have been a “good many men in my life, there has only ever been one woman” — von Furstenberg, whom he met shortly after getting the top job at Paramount in the mid-1970s. The pair were together for years in the ’70s, before breaking up and later marrying in 2001.

Diller, in the endearing and revealing excerpt, said he had been “realistic” that “everyone knows” in the entertainment world that he is attracted to men, but that he “never wanted to make any declarations.” But long-running rumors that his relationship with von Furstenberg is merely an arrangement or friendship are untrue, Diller said.

“I’ve lived for decades reading about Diane and me: about us being best friends rather than lovers. We weren’t just friends. We aren’t just friends,” Diller wrote. “Plain and simple, it was an explosion of passion that kept up for years.”

He continued: “And, yes, I also liked guys, but that was not a conflict with my love for Diane. I can’t explain it to myself or to the world. It simply happened to both of us without motive or manipulation. In some cosmic way we were destined for each other.”

The 83-year-old IAC chairman also recounted how the relationship was a pleasant surprise to both him and his friends when it first started in the ’70s.

Diller wrote about one time, shortly after he got together with the Belgian designer, when the two snuck off to a guesthouse at a pool party to relieve an “explosion of pent-up demand.” Record mogul David Geffen, Diller wrote, ended up walking in on the couple.

“I caught a glimpse of David’s more-than-astonished face as he quickly closed the door,” Diller wrote.

The pair were together for years while Diller was running Paramount, splitting time between New York and Los Angeles. Their relationship ended in “the days of Studio 54,” Diller shared, after von Furstenberg had an affair with Richard Gere.

“[Gere] was in the middle of making ‘American Gigolo,‘ and the idea that this was happening while he was working for me at Paramount made me feel too much the fool,” the businessman-turned-author wrote.

Diller and von Furstenberg reconnected years later, marrying in 2001. He said he understands the intrigue and confusion about their relationship, considering he was known to mostly be attracted to men. But to Diller, von Furstenberg and their family and friends, it all makes sense.

“Today, sexual identities are much more fluid and natural, without all those rigidly defined lanes of the last century. I’ve always thought that you never really know about anyone else’s relationships. But I do know about ours,” Diller said. “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.”

The full excerpt is worth a read over at NY Mag. Diller’s memoir, “Who Knew,” will be published by Simon & Schuster on May 20.

The post Barry Diller Opens Up About Fluid Sexuality, Marriage to Diane von Furstenberg: ‘We Aren’t Just Friends’ appeared first on TheWrap.