Sep 12, 2006 11:00 pm US/Eastern
McGreevey Talks To Oprah About His Coming Out
Former N.J. Governor Tapes Show That Will Air Sept. 19
CHICAGO (AP) ―
Former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey on Tuesday told "The Oprah Winfrey Show" about his lifelong struggle with sexuality during the first stop of a book tour to discuss his new political memoir about being the nation's first openly gay governor.
McGreevey, who has remained publicly silent since resigning from office two years ago after announcing he was gay, waved and smiled from the front seat of a sport utility vehicle as it pulled into the television studio's parking garage.
Audience members who attended the two-hour-long taping said they were instructed not to discuss the show or McGreevey's comments. The former governor's book, "The Confession," has been cloaked in secrecy and will be released Sept. 19 -- the same day the show is to air.
Winfrey landed the exclusive interview with 49-year-old McGreevey because of her sense of faith and spirituality, according to friends of the former governor. McGreevey is said to be a fan of Winfrey's education and anti-poverty work, two issues to which the former governor is devoting more time in his post-political life.
About a dozen friends and colleagues accompanied McGreevey and his partner, Australian financial adviser Mark O'Donnell, 42, to Chicago for the Tuesday afternoon taping.
"It was a good show," said Kathleen Keenan, a nurse from Spring Lake, N.J., who was among a group of women who said they were college friends of McGreevey and had submitted old photographs to Winfrey producers for the segment.
Keenan, who said she was McGreevey's date to a homecoming dance when the two were classmates at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., during the 1970s, declined further comment after the taping. Before the show, she said she and her college friends had suspected McGreevey's homosexuality.
"We were in shock, but we had sort of heard he might be gay," she said.
Some segments of the show, including clips from the home McGreevey shares with O'Donnell in New Jersey's Union County, were filmed previously.
McGreevey's book traces his life through two failed marriages, his rise to the governor's office and the sudden, public implosion of his political career.
McGreevey announced his homosexuality and his impending resignation in the same speech on Aug. 12, 2004, declaring that he had been involved in an affair with a man. A Democrat, he was governor from Jan. 15, 2002 to Nov. 15, 2004.
New Jersey State Sen. Ray Lesniak and Rahway, N.J. Mayor Jim Kennedy accompanied McGreevey during the taping.
Lesniak was interviewed by Winfrey's staff in preparation for the program and said they were interested in how McGreevey is now compared with when he was governor.
"They are two different people," Lesniak said. "The first person was very guarded and very concerned about how he was perceived. He was driven to achieve and was somewhat uncomfortable.
"The McGreevey I know now has accepted who he is and has shared that with the rest of the world," he said. "He is comfortable with himself and concerned about being authentic to himself and his beliefs."
Julie Everett, a Cincinnati nurse, also said she attended college with McGreevey.
"We're here to support him as his friends," Everett said before the taping. "His courage, his humility, he has been unbelievable since this ordeal. He's an inspiration to me."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
