*Long before Oprah Winfrey became a household name, she and John Tesh shared a brief but memorable romance. The two dated in the 1970s while working at competing local television stations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Tesh, now 73, is looking back at what that relationship was really like.
Speaking exclusively to Page Six, Tesh described the social climate surrounding their courtship as challenging. It was “very uncomfortable back then for an African-American woman and a very, very white guy” to be seen together, he said, adding that the relationship “was unusual in the South. My whole family grew up in the South, and so I was obviously aware of that.”
Rather than letting outside opinions dampen their dynamic, the two turned the tension into humor. “It became a joke between us,” Tesh explained, “because we would work all day and then, like we really saw each other once a week, and she or I would say, ‘Hey, which restaurant do you want to empty tonight?'”
Tesh also noted that Winfrey’s star power was evident to everyone around her from the very beginning. “We all knew that she was something special,” he said.
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When asked whether Winfrey was a good kisser, Tesh deflected with humor, calling it “such a Page Six question,” before conceding he couldn’t recall. “I don’t even remember us kissing! We were really, really close friends,” he said.
Ultimately, their demanding workloads pulled them in different directions. Baltimore and then Chicago became Winfrey’s next chapters, while Tesh built his career across New York and Los Angeles, eventually landing a prominent hosting role on “Entertainment Tonight.”
Tesh married actress Connie Sellecca in 1992, and the couple share one daughter.
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