Al Reynolds is opening up about his sexuality and transparency.
The ex-husband of former The View cohost Star Jones shared his truth during Wednesday’s episode of Fox Soul’s Tea-G-I-F show during a segment that discussed whether or not people who identify as transgender should disclose that they are trans immediately to the partners they’re dating. For context, while Reynolds himself does not identify as trans, back in 2017, he came out as bisexual in an interview with Radar Online.
“Today I accept myself as a bisexual man. I have learned that sexual orientation is not binary, at least for me. I am capable of loving both sexes, and I have done both,” he said in part at the time. “My relationships, all of them, have been honest and based on my attraction to the other person. When I am in love I don’t equivocate, nor do I waver.”
On Wednesday’s episode, Reynolds told cohost and former Real Housewives of Atlanta star Claudia Jordan and guest cohost comedian Lunell that he thought the decision for a trans person to publicly identify to their partner immediately is one that’s “deeply individual, complex and very personal.” When the topic pivoted to his personal life, specifically whether he not he disclosed his sexuality to his ex all those years ago—Reynold’s made it clear he’s always been truthful with “all of his partners.”
“Oh my goodness, I have never been not truthful with anybody that I’ve dated,” Reynolds said, before Lunell interjected: “So Star knew she married a gay man?”
Reynolds continued, “I’ve talked about this on this platform before. I have always been very honest with all of my partners about my sexuality, all of them. At the time that I dated them, I’ve been very open and honest about my sexuality.”
However, interspersed throughout his answer were Jordan’s comments that Reynolds allegedly “never told” Jones he was bisexual. But Reynold’s comments line up with comments he made back in 2021 during an interview on the ASAP: Another Shawn Allen Podcast where he revealed that he wasn’t the first bisexual man his ex had been with—thusly alluding to the fact that Jones allegedly knew already.
“Anybody who knows my ex-wife, I was not the first bisexual man that she was involved with okay? The guy that she was engaged with before she met me was a bisexual man,” Reynolds alleged at the time. “He came out shortly after she got married as gay so I’m not the first bisexual man that she was involved with.”
He continued:
“I went to my ex-wife and I said — remember, at that time, she was probably, besides Oprah, one of the largest Black women entertainers in the business. She was a household name. So I knew that if I was going to rock with her, I had to be 100 percent transparent with her. And I was. There was no reason for me not to be transparent.
I sat down and I told her, I had at that time, my experience was very limited, but I told her what my experience had been up to that point. For me, at that time, I was 30. I was a young kid. I dated women up to her. It was what it was. I said, in my mind mentally, if this is who I decide to be with, it didn’t matter if it was a man or a woman, if I decided that’s who I was going to be with, that’s who I was going to honor. That’s who I was going to love.”
Jones has not responded to Reynold’s new comments.