Oprah Winfrey is a real one, and when it comes to practicing social distancing during the coronavirus global pandemic, she’s not playing….not even with her longtime love Stedman Graham. Winfrey recently revealed to fans that Stedman is currently living in her guest house because he didn’t take the pandemic seriously soon enough.
“Stedman is at the guest house because ya’ll know I had pneumonia late last year and you can still hear the raspiness in my throat sometimes when I talk,” Winfrey explained to Oprah Magazine Digital Director Arianna Davis during an Instagram live chat they shared yesterday. “I had just gotten off antibiotics last week because I had a bronchial infection, and so Stedman was late to the party.”
Winfrey went live with Davis for an intimate interview from her Santa Barbara, California home, where she’s keeping Graham at a distance because he was traveling up until the final moments before the national quarantine.
“Stedman was one of those going, ‘I don’t see what everyone’s being so upset about. Being all fear-based’,” Winfrey explained. “That’s what Stedman was saying….and that’s why Stedman’s at the guest house!”
Even though they’re not getting to cuddle during the quarantine, Winfrey remains light hearted about the ordeal, jokingly sharing with Davis that it’s his own fault they have to keep their distance right now.
“Because Stedman did not arrive from Chicago, ya’ll, until Thursday. He had been speaking in St. Louis on Saturday. He’s been on planes and he’d been on all this and all of that,” Winfrey said. “Stedman was like ‘what’s the procedure for coming home?’ I said, ‘The procedure is, you ain’t coming and sleeping in my bed.’ Literally, Arianna, he goes, ‘I’m not?’ And I said, ‘no no no no no! It doesn’t work that way. Have you not been paying attention to the news? Social distancing doesn’t mean you’re going to go and sleep in the bed with someone!’”
Amen, Oprah!
Like all Americans should right now, Winfrey, 66, and Stedman, who’ve been together over 20 years, aren’t taking any unnecessary risk.
“We’re taking it very seriously,” Winfrey said. “I walk by the guest house. I leave food on the doorstep.”