The Double Life Of Media Mogul Barry Diller Now Finally Exposed

Media mogul and Fox Broadcasting co-founder Barry Diller has opened up for the primary time about his attraction to males and the complexities of his long-standing relationship with iconic clothier Diane von Fürstenberg.

In a heartfelt excerpt from his new memoir “Who Knew,” Diller opened up about his sexuality, detailing the internal conflicts he wrestled with for years and the way they intertwined along with his love for von Fürstenberg.

Diller is famend for his affect in media and leisure.

However, behind his unbelievable success, he has now revealed he spent most of his life hiding a secret: his attraction to males.

“I have never questioned my sexuality’s basic authority over my life (I was only afraid of the reaction of others),” he confessed in “Who Knew,” excerpted by New York Magazine. “And when my romance with Diane began, I never questioned that its biological imperative was as strong in its heterosexuality as its opposite had been. When it happened, my initial response was, ‘Who knew?’”

In the memoir, Diller recounted his earliest experiences with males, beginning as a young person in West Hollywood.

“I had found ways to find men — starting with my teenage years street cruising in West Hollywood, darting in and out of side doors of bars along Melrose Avenue,” he wrote.

Even as his profession soared, worry of being uncovered stored him emotionally remoted.

He shared, “I had so much early career success you might have thought I’d conquered what I saw as the biggest danger in my developing life. I’d conquered other phobias, but fear of exposure still had a tyrannical hold on me.”

Despite the inner battle, Diller’s love for von Fürstenberg was simple.

The couple, who married in 2001 after many years of romance, first related within the early Seventies.

“I didn’t just want her, I needed her,” he wrote. “And that banged hard into my built-up self-protections.”

Though he was emotionally unprepared for intimacy, their connection flourished.

“I’ve lived for decades reading about Diane and me: about us being best friends rather than lovers. We weren’t just friends. We aren’t just friends. Plain and simple, it was an explosion of passion that kept up for years.”

Diller was open in regards to the duality of his emotions: “And, yes, I also liked guys, but that was not a conflict with my love for Diane.”

For many years, Diller lived by a self-imposed code of silence. Instead of overtly popping out, he developed a set of private guidelines designed to handle appearances whereas staying true to himself.

“I would live with silence, but not with hypocrisy,” one in every of his guidelines acknowledged. Another declared, “I would never bring a man as a date to a heterosexual event — not that there were many guys I was serious enough about to bring — but I’d never bring a woman as a ‘beard,’ either.”

Looking again, he calls these boundaries what they have been, noting, “I recognize it now as the opposite of courage.”

Even although he finally realized that “everyone knows,” he remained unwilling to label his sexuality publicly.

“Compartmentalizing these unwanted feelings became so successful that it has both ruled and riled my life ever since,” he shared.

When it got here to his high-profile relationship with von Fürstenberg, Barry Diller let the world draw its personal conclusions.

“I hid my relationship with Diane from the public at the start because I couldn’t define it for them,” he defined.

Von Fürstenberg, a style powerhouse who revolutionized ladies’s wardrobes together with her wrap costume, grew to become a logo of female power and independence. Hence, as her fame rose, their connection grew to become tougher to cover.

Yet, for Diller, the character of their bond didn’t want rationalization.

“Though I admit I was always interested in men, it was never in conflict with my love for Diane,” he mentioned.