Although Hollywood
already knew it, it had to be made publicly: Jodie Foster finally recognized
that she is a lesbian.
After hiding it for 15 years, or just not making such a big
deal out of it, Jodie came out and confirmed her relationship with film
production manager Cydney Bernard.
This Saturday, at the 16th Annual Women in Entertainment
Power 100 breakfast after receiving the award for the Sherry Lansing Leadership
Award, Jodie wished to thank "my beautiful Cydney", thus confirming
the rumors, Mirror.co.uk reports.
Jodie kept her relationship with Cydney away from the public
eye.
They’ve met on the set her film, “Sommersby”, in 1992. The
couple was seen out in L.A.
Jodie’s two children, Charles, nine, and Kit, six, bear the
middle name “Bernard” just as Cydney’s last name. Although Jodie never
mentioned the father of her children is believed that that sperm was donated.
Cydney, 54, is helping Jodie, 45, to raise the two children.
The couple never appeared together at a red-carpet event.
In her acceptance speech Jodie wished to thank “my beautiful
Cydney, who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss".
She went on by saying: “Growing up, there were hardly any
women in my professional sphere - there was maybe a script supervisor, the
makeup artist and the lady who played my mother. I became the prodigal daughter
after I proved myself in a family of men.”
“I don’t feel very powerful. I feel fragile … unsure,
struggling to figure it all out, trying to get there even though I’m not sure
where there is … I’ve been working in this business for 42 years and there’s no
way you can do that and not be as nutty as a fruitcake.”
Her move triggered the praise by gay rights group Stonewall.
A spokesman of the group said: "The fact it has taken
her a long time to do so is a reminder of how difficult it can be for gay
people to acknowledge their private lives in public."
Jodie received her first Oscar nomination at the age of 14
for her role as a prostitute in “Taxi Driver” where she starred alongside
Robert De Niro.
In 1998 and in 1991 she received the Oscar for Best Actress in
“The Accused” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”
