Before she moved to Baltimore, Oprah Winfrey also dated future “Entertainment Tonight” host John Tesh. According to Us Weekly, in 2010, Tesh spoke of the romance, saying, “Oprah and I were cub reporters in Nashville nearly 40 years ago and we dated for a short time. We even talked about it during one of my appearances on her show.”
Tesh elaborated in an interview with journalist Michael P. Coleman, where he revealed that Winfrey was 19 and he was 21 when they worked at rival Tennessee news stations. In the interview, Tesh noted that he and Winfrey would compete to cover similar stories, such as local fires or city hall news, but that they always looked out for one another. “We would go out to lunch and go to movies together, and we’d have dinner,” he said.
Tesh also revealed that when they went out in public together, some people took issue with the fact that they were a biracial couple. “It was 1974, and we would go to a restaurant and people would leave the restaurant because it was a white guy and a black woman,” Tesh said. “And of course, Oprah had the most amazing sense of humor. She would say, ‘Hey, what restaurant are we going to empty today?’ And I’d say, ‘Hey, yeah, let’s clear out a restaurant!'”
Despite their relationship ending, Tesh also confirmed that he remains friends with Winfrey, even to this day.
