Oprah Winfrey’s ex-boyfriend, John Tesh, said the two made fun of people who were bothered by interracial relationships.
The “Entertainment Tonight” alum and Winfrey, 72, briefly dated in the 1970s when they both worked at rival local television stations in Nashville, Tennessee.
“At the time, it was very uncomfortable for a very white man to date an African-American woman,” Tesh, 73, exclusively told Page Six.
Tesch admits that their relationship was “unusual in the South. My whole family grew up in the South, so of course I knew that.”
However, the two refused to inform them.
“It became a joke between us,” he explains. “We’d work all day, and then, as if we really met once a week, she or I would say, ‘Hey, which restaurant would you like to empty tonight?'”
Tesh says it was clear from the beginning that Winfrey was a star and destined for great things.
“We all knew she was special,” he shared, noting that he was thrilled when he was assigned to cover the same story. “I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to be a lot of fun.’
When asked if the A-lister was a good kisser, he joked, “That’s such a Page Six question! I grew up on Page Six,” and admitted he doesn’t remember.
“I don’t even remember us kissing! We were really, really good friends,” he says.
But the relationship broke down due to their heavy workloads, and Winfrey moved to Baltimore and then Chicago, while Tesh eventually moved to New York and then Los Angeles, where he was a longtime co-host on “Entertainment Tonight.”
Tesh married Hotel alum Connie Sellecka in 1992 and they have a daughter together, while Winfrey has been dating Stedman Graham since 1986.
Tesch quit his job on “ET” in 1996 and decided to focus on his burgeoning music career. That includes writing the NBA’s now-iconic NBC Basketball theme song, “Roundball Rock,” which he recently performed during the All-Star Game. His live concerts have raised millions of dollars for PBS.
Tesch told Page Six that in a good year, he makes “low six figures” for catchy material and can thank former sports executive Dick Ebersol.
“It was Dick Ebersol who decided to use the song in 1990,” he recalled. “He said, ‘This is great, this is great. We’re going to use this. Why don’t we play this for a while and send one of your kids to college?’ And I said, ‘Okay, okay!’
In addition to music, Tesch also hosts the radio show “Intelligence for Your Life,” which is heard on 350 stations.
