Getty Images Oprah & Stedman.
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham are still together, but are not married. The couple has been together for more than three decades, despite choosing to not tie the knot.
Graham and Winfrey have been together since 1986. The two are rarely seen together in public, but Graham does make occasional appearances on Winfrey’s social media. In fact, Winfrey posted a video with Stedman earlier this year in honor of her birthday.
“Thank you to all my special friends, and friends I didn’t even know I had, for your birthday wishes! I felt blessed by your messages. And grateful to have another turn around the sun. @stedmangraham and I had a quiet day at home watching The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Sounder and ate some cake,” Winfrey captioned the Instagram video, in which she hugged and kissed Graham.
Winfrey and Graham don’t have any children together. Graham has one daughter, Wendy, 43, from a previous relationship. In 2015, he became a grandfather for the first time.
Here’s what you need to know:
Winfrey Made Graham Self-Quarantine in 2020
There was a time in 2020 when Winfrey and Graham were living apart — but that’s only because Winfrey insisted on Graham self-quarantining for 14 days during the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Winfrey, 67, had recently got over being sick with pneumonia followed by a bronchial infection, according to Entertainment Weekly, when she asked Graham to self-quarantine.
“He’d been on planes, so Stedman is like, ‘What’s the procedure for coming home?’ The procedure is … you ain’t coming and sleeping in my bed!’ And literally, he goes, ‘I’m not?’ And I go, ‘Have you not been paying attention to the news? Social distancing doesn’t mean you go and sleep in the same bed with the person! When you just got off American Airlines!'” Winfrey recalled during and Instagram Live conversation with the editor of O Magazine.
The two stayed away from one another for two weeks, only communicating virtually, for the full 14 days as Graham took up residence at the couple’s guest house. Thankfully, neither Winfrey nor Graham were diagnosed with COVID-19, and they’ve been living under one roof ever since.
And while you may be wondering if the quarantine was a problem for Graham, Winfrey revealed that he was “happy” to keep her “safe.”
“My friends say, ‘Oh, isn’t Stedman upset?’ He’s really not. He’s happy to keep me safe,” Winfrey said.
Graham Proposed to Winfrey in 1993, but a ‘Spiritual Partnership’ Worked Best for Them
Back in 1993, Graham proposed to the talk show host — and she said yes. However, the two never actually exchanged vows. At the time, the gesture was more symbolic than anything else.
“The moment after I said yes to his proposal, I had doubts. I realized I didn’t actually want a marriage. I wanted to be asked. I wanted to know he felt I was worthy of being his missus, but I didn’t want the sacrifices, the compromises, the day-in-day-out commitment required to make a marriage work. My life with the show was my priority, and we both knew it,” Winfrey wrote in an O Magazine article back in January 2020.
“He and I agree that had we tied the marital knot, we would not still be together,” she added.
Winfrey went on to explain that she and Stedman have a “spiritual partnership,” which is something that they both value — and it’s worked for them thus far.
“It’s what [spiritual teacher] Gary Zukav defines as a spiritual partnership. Partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth,” Winfrey wrote.
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