John Tesh reflects on his brief 1970s relationship with Oprah Winfrey and the adversity they faced as an interracial couple in the South.
Tesh, 73, said it was “very awkward at the time for an African-American woman and a very, very white man” to date. He noted that their relationship was considered unusual in Nashville, Tennessee, where they worked at rival local TV stations.
Despite the social climate, he refused to let public comments define their time together.
“It became a joke between us,” he said Page six“Because we worked all day and then, like, we actually saw each other once a week, and she or I would say, ‘Hey, which restaurant do you want to empty tonight?’”
Tesh added that Winfrey stood out even early in her career. “We all knew she was something special,” he said, noting that he loved it when they were assigned to tell the same stories. “It was like, ‘Okay, this makes this a lot of fun.’
The romance eventually faded as their careers pulled them in different directions. Winfrey later moved to Baltimore and Chicago, while Tesh moved to New York and Los Angeles, where he became a longtime co-host of Entertainment tonight.
Tesh left the show in 1996 to concentrate on music, composing the signature “Roundball Rock” theme for NBA on NBC and building a successful concert career that has supported PBS programming.
Tesh married actress Connie Sellecca in 1992, while Winfrey has been in a long-term relationship with Stedman Graham since 1986.
