For as long as many of us have known Oprah, we’ve known of her “longtime” partner, Stedman Graham, too. The CEO of a marketing and consulting firm in Chi-town, Graham has been by the side of the Queen of Talk since 1986. He’s seen her turn her eponymous show into a cultural juggernaut (the highest-rated daytime talk show there ever was), then start a widely successful magazine, and finally, launch her own network. She’s never had to dim her bright light to be with him. He got it. He got her.
“This career is extremely important to you, and for a long time, I felt like it was first in your life, and I knew it was first in your life,” he said during an appearance on her show in 1989. That’s the same year they covered Black Cosmopolitan! “I know that that’s changing. I know there’s a process that you have to go through personally to get to the point where you realize that the Oprah Winfrey Show is not the most important thing in your life. And I also realize that you’re the star, and this is your life, and this is what you do, and I support you in that.”
Despite not being married after more than three decades together, their relationship has stood the test of time. Let Winfrey tell it, marriage would have probably led to their demise.
“The only time I brought it up was when I said to Stedman: ‘What would have happened if we had actually gotten married?’ And the answer is: ‘We wouldn’t be together,’” she told Vogue in 2017. “We would not have stayed together, because marriage requires a different way of being in this world. His interpretation of what it means to be a husband and what it would mean for me to be a wife would have been pretty traditional, and I would not have been able to fit into that.’”
But they’ve made it this long because he’s a rock and a safe space for her. “He’s appropriately named because he’s steady as a mountain,” she wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine in 2020. “Even-tempered, accountable, trustworthy, patient.”
And among other things, Graham loves…that Winfrey can throw down in the kitchen. “You’re a fantastic cook. You put a lot of love in the work you do, and it crosses over into the food you make,” he said in an interview with Oprah years ago. “Anything she cooks I really enjoy eating, and I appreciate it very much. She makes great pancakes, too. She makes great eggs, she makes great steaks—I mean, you could go on and on and on. She’s just an exceptional cook and an exceptional person.”
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach! But clearly, both parties are being fed in this relationship, and we love to see them together. Check out photos of the delightful pair from their many years together below.
NEW YORK CITY – DECEMBER 8: Oprah Winfrey and Steadman Graham attend the premiere of “Native Son” on December 8, 1986 at the Apollo Theater in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
NEW YORK CITY – JUNE 30: Stedman Graham and Oprah Winfrey attend 14th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards After Party on June 30, 1987 at Stringfellow’s in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham during “Good Morning, Vietnam” Los Angeles Premiere at Cineramadome Theater in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Oprah Winfrey and Steadman Graham attend Tyson vs. Spinks Boxing Match on June 27, 1988 at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Stedman Graham and Oprah Winfrey at the New York Hilton Hotel in New York City, New York (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Stedman Graham and Oprah Winfrey attend the state dinner for Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke at The White House on June 27, 1989 in Washington, DC. Article title: ‘Eye: Dinner Mates (Photo by Fairchild Archive/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Oprah Winfrey and Steadman Graham attend American All-Star Tribute Honoring Oprah Winfrey on September 8, 1990 at the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Oprah Winfrey and Steadman Graham (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Stedman Graham and Oprah Winfrey (Photo by Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Stedman Graham and Oprah Winfrey (Photo by Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
216965 47: Talk show host Oprah Winfrey stands with her boyfriend Stedman Graham at the sixty-seventh Academy Awards March 27, 1995 in Los Angeles, CA. After nearly three-quarters of a century of recognizing excellence in film-making achievement, the presentation of the Oscars has become the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” most famous activity. (Photo by Barry King/Liaison)
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham during 1995 Essence Awards at Paramount Theater in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MAY 19: American media proprietor and talk show host Oprah Winfrey and her partner Stedman Graham pose for a portrait before the 22nd Daytime Emmy Awards on May 19, 1995 at the Marquis Hotel in New York, New York. (Photo by Ron Davis/Getty Images)
Author, businessman, and ex-athlete Stedman Graham hugs his girlfriend, talk show host Oprah Winfrey at Radio City Music Hall. (Photo by Mitchell Gerber/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
Stedman Graham & Oprah Winfrey during Premiere of Beloved ’98 in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc)
17th April 2000: American actor and talk show host Oprah Winfrey smiling with her husband, Stedman Graham, as they arrive at the Metropolitan Pavillion for her launch party for ‘O: The Oprah Magazine’ New York City. (Photo by Karl Feile/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and her companion, Steadman Graham, at the Governors Ball, following the 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, September 22, 2002. Oprah was presented with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. (Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
US talk host queen Oprah Winfrey arrives with her boyfriend Steadman Graham at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg 19 July t2003 to attend former President Nelson Mandela’s 85th birthday party. AFP PHOTO RAJESH JANTILAL (Photo credit should read RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP via Getty Images)
MALIBU, CA – JULY 22: American educator, author, businessman, and public speaker Stedman Graham and American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey arrive at the GRAMMY Foundation’s A Starry Night Benefit held on July 22, 2006 at Villa Casablanca in Malibu, California. (Photo Bob Berg/Getty Images)
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham at the Inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. (Photo by Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 4: (AFP OUT) Oprah Winfrey, one of the 2010 Kennedy Center honorees, arrives with Stedman Graham for the formal artist’s dinner for the Kennedy Center Honors at the United States Department of State December 4, 2010 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 05: Stedman Graham and Oprah Winfrey attend “The Butler” premiere at Ziegfeld Theater on August 5, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)
Oprah Winfrey arrives with Stedman Graham on the red carpet for the 87th Oscars February 22, 2015 in Hollywood, California. AFP PHOTO / MARK RALSTON (Photo by MARK RALSTON / AFP) (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JANUARY 07: Stedman Graham (L) and Oprah Winfrey celebrate The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards with Moet & Chandon at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Moet & Chandon)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – OCTOBER 05: Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham attend Tyler Perry Studios grand opening gala at Tyler Perry Studios on October 05, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paul R. Giunta/Getty Images)
Want to make a statement?
Leave a comment about this here!
[efb_feed fanpage_id=”BlackCosmopolitan” words_limit=”25″ post_limit=”1″ skin_id=”115758″ cache_unit=”1″ cache_duration=”days” live_stream_only=”0″ load_more=”0″ links_new_tab=”1″ show_like_box=”0″]
Disclaimer:
For Education and discussion purposes. Please note no copyright infringement is intended, was recorded on BlkCosmo’s own equipment, and we do not own nor claim to own any of the original recordings used in this video and intend to use this as ‘fair use’.
