With no makeup and a modest all-black wardrobe — what she describes as the “Amish psycho killer” look — Kelly Cutrone has cultivated the type of gay following typically reserved for sparkly divas. The intimidating owner of People’s Revolution, a top fashion public relations and marketing firm, Cutrone grabbed America’s attention as the straight-shooting, scene-stealing mentor to Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port on MTV hits The Hills and The City. Part memoir and part self-help manual, Cutrone’s candid new book, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You, is out February 2 — the day after her own reality series, Kell on Earth, debuts on Bravo. From her Manhattan office, the 44-year-old single mom (she has a 7-year-old daughter, Ava, with actor Ilario Calvo) now introduces us to her flamboyant “gay sons” and reveals the truth behind those persistent lesbian rumors.


Advocate.com: I know you’re a busy woman, so thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to chat with us.

Kelly Cutrone: I love The Advocate. Let’s get to the lesbian rumors — you want to start with that?

Oh, well, I was going to ease into it, but sure.
I thought I was a lesbian at one point after my divorce from [Warhol protégé] Ronnie Cutrone, who I married at 21. Everybody told me that if I did all these things, I was going to live happily ever after, so getting divorced at the age of 25 is pretty heavy if you’re in love and you believe in that whole system the way that I did. I was like, I think women are really beautiful and everybody thinks I’m gay, so I must be a lesbian. So I did sleep with and have a relationship with a woman, but it was very short-lived — only two weeks — because I like to have sex with guys. I don’t even think it was the wrong woman or anything, I just like to — I’m trying not to say the f word this year, but, you know. There are so many stereotypes, so I can understand why people think that I’m gay, but if I were gay, I’d be sleeping with a woman and not be uptight about it. I just sexually prefer to sleep with men — like you do, I’m sure.