Andy Cohen Admits He Regrets How He Asked Oprah Winfrey About Her Sexuality On His Show

The 'Watch What Happens Live' host asked Winfrey if she's ever 'swum in the lady pond' back in 2013.

Oct. 26, 2022

Andy Cohen Admits He Regrets How He Asked Oprah Winfrey About Her Sexuality On His Show

Taylor Hill/Getty Images; Steve Granitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen says he regrets how he asked Oprah Winfrey about her sexuality on his show back in 2013, saying he'd asked her a spur-of-the-moment question that didn't land.

Winfrey hasn't appeared on What's What Happens Live since then and never provided Cohen any feedback after his question crashed and burned.

You can watch her interview with Cohen in the video below.

Best of Oprah on Watch What Happens Live | WWHLyoutu.be

Speaking at BravoCon 2022 last week, Cohen expressed remorse for the way he'd asked Winfrey about her sexuality during her appearance on the program, telling moderators Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb he'd "asked it so poorly."

“I decided, ‘Why don’t I throw this out? Maybe I’ll throw a bomb out.’ And I asked Oprah, ‘Have you ever swum in the lady pond?’"

"And she was like, ‘No'.”

You can hear what Cohen said in the video below.

Andy Cohen Regrets Asking Oprah If She's Swam 'In The Lady Pond' | Accessyoutu.be

Cohen revealed he never heard from Winfrey again after the interview but he heard from her friend, CBS journalist Gayle King, the following day.

“She didn’t say anything, but I heard from Gayle the next day. And Gayle goes: ‘Oprah didn’t know what the lady pond was'."

"And I was like, ‘Well then I need to re-ask the question!’ But [Oprah] hasn’t come back.”

Cohen's apology has received a negative response from those who recalled the interview.

\u201c@Andy - you\u2019re not @Oprah. Choose kindly and wisely bro. Legacy doesn\u2019t have to look like chaos as presented \ud83e\udef6\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb\ud83e\udef6\ud83c\udffb\u201d
— StephenSalyers (@StephenSalyers) 1666044130

Good! It’s about time! First of all, it’s a rude and childish question about something that is none of his business. Oprah is not a child, she is a grown woman and that was sooo out of place. He asks way too many sexually charged questions that are offensive to many people.
— nvrgvupts (@nvrgvupts) October 14, 2022

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Winfrey has been in a relationship with her partner Stedman Graham since 1986. The two became engaged in 1992 but have never married.

Winfrey's best friend since their twenties is the aforementioned King, who was formerly the host of The Gayle King Show and is currently an editor of O, the Oprah Magazine.

Since 1997, when Winfrey played the therapist on an episode of the sitcom Ellen in which Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet, Winfrey and King have been the target of persistent rumors that they were gay.

Winfrey has laughed off these rumors, saying that there "isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women," adding that it's ludicrous that people think someone as high profile as her would "be so ashamed of being gay that I wouldn't admit it."