Jodie Foster clarifies if she actually came out in Golden Globes speech: 'They were confused'
- - Jodie Foster clarifies if she actually came out in Golden Globes speech: 'They were confused'
Wesley StenzelJanuary 11, 2026 at 11:06 PM
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Jodie Foster at the 2013 Golden Globe AwardsKey points -
Jodie Foster publicly addressed her former partner, Cydney Bernard, in a speech at the 2013 Golden Globes.
The speech led to widespread speculation that Foster had come out as queer.
Foster addressed the speech in a new interview, saying that viewers were "confused" and that she knew her remarks would be "misinterpreted."
Jodie Foster is reflecting on her buzzy speech at the 2013 Golden Globes.
The Panic Room actress discussed her remarks at the awards ceremony — which led to widespread speculation that she was coming out as queer — in a new interview with Variety.
"They were confused!" Foster said of the Golden Globes' viewers following her speech.
As she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2013 ceremony, Foster thanked Cydney Bernard, the co-parent of her two sons whom she described as "one of the deepest loves of my life" and "my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life."
In the speech, the actress also said she "already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age, in those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually, proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met."
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Jodie Foster at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 13, 2013
However, Foster did not explicitly state that she is queer in the speech, and did not frame the remarks as a coming-out speech. However, she did jokingly introduce the speech as if it was a coming-out speech, saying, "I have a sudden urge to say something that I've never really been able to air in public" and calling herself "loud and proud" before revealing, "I am single."
In her conversation with Variety, Foster explained the reasoning behind the style of her speech.
"It was really important that it be so literary," she said, "because I knew that it would be chopped up, misinterpreted."
Foster also said that she wanted the speech to serve as a snapshot of herself at 50 so that "20 years from now, my kids will go back" to witness her in that period of her life.
Foster's Globes speech was as concerned with the tension between celebrity and privacy as it was with discussing her personal life. "I'm told, apparently, that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show," she said at the time. "You know, you guys might be surprised, but I am not Honey Boo Boo Child. No, I'm sorry, that's just not me. It never was and it never will be. Please don't cry because my reality show would be so boring."
Marc Piasecki/WireImage
Jodie Foster in Marrakech, Morocco, on Nov. 29, 2025
She continued, "But seriously, if you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you too might value privacy above all else. Privacy."
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Foster and Bernard reportedly dated from 1993 until 2009, welcoming their first son, Charlie, in 1998, and their second son, Kit, in 2001. The actress then married photographer Alexandra Hedison in 2014.
Foster can next be seen in A Private Life, a French-language thriller that hits theaters on Jan. 16.
The 2026 Golden Globes ceremony airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS and Paramount+. See the full list of winners.
on Entertainment Weekly
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