New Jersey's
ex-governor invites The Advocate home for a
no-holds-barred interview about losing the lies and
coming out happy. Reporter Jon Barrett previews our Coming
Out exclusive.
It’s been
two years since Jim McGreevey last gripped the
world’s attention by coming out of the closet
and resigning as the governor of New Jersey with his
now-famous “gay American” speech. And it was
on the eve of his next coming-out party—this
time for his memoir, The Confession—that
McGreevey invited me to his neo-Georgian home in
Plainfield, N.J., last month to conduct the first
interview for the book. After he greeted me at the
front door with his partner, Mark O’Donnell,
and offered me a glass of water, McGreevey and I sat
down in the living room and immediately started talking
about his life in the closet—the furtive sexual
encounters with men, the deception of his
wife—as well as the rewards of coming out, meeting
O'Donnell, and continuing to raise his two daughters.
Despite spending
his entire public life pretending to be someone other
than himself, the governor was surprisingly forthcoming; he
answered every one of my questions. He was anxious
about the monthlong cross-country book tour scheduled
to start three weeks after our meeting, and he was
especially nervous about the tour’s kick-off
interview with Oprah Winfrey, which airs today. But he
was clearly ready to tell his story.
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Read "Jim McGreevey: Happy at Last" in the October 10
issue of The Advocate, on newsstands
September 26.