As we all try to figure out how to navigate social distancing and life during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s natural to look to others for guidance. And since Oprah is everyone’s favorite life guru, you may be wondering how she and longtime partner Stedman are handling their quarantine. Well, let’s just say they’re staying well together…ish — the couple isn’t bunking together right now, but they’re still managing to fill their self-isolation with quality time.
On Sunday, Oprah sat down with Oprah Magazine‘s digital director Arianna Davis for an Instagram Live, which took place at Oprah and Stedman’s home in Santa Barbara, California. During the conversation, Oprah revealed that Stedman is currently shacked up in the guesthouse since he was traveling at the time the coronavirus pandemic began to spread. Obviously, it’s hard enough being quarantined with company. How are Stedman and Oprah handling it on their own? Pretty well, TBH, all things considered.
They can still communicate (thanks, technology!). And like most of us, Oprah’s days are filled with plenty of “reading, binge-watching, and pancakes.” She makes sure to share the latter with Stedman, too. She, Thando and Sadé — two graduates from her school in South Africa whom she considers “daughters” — take him breakfast and dinner daily. She and Stedman also have “love chats” from the window. “My friends say, ‘Oh, isn’t Stedman upset?'” Oprah recounted. “He’s really not. He’s happy to keep me safe.”
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Granted, like those of us who were in denial at first, Stedman didn’t take the coronavirus seriously at the onset. As Oprah tells it, he was “one of those” who was “late to the party” when it came to realizing the pandemic’s gravitas. “‘I don’t see what everybody’s getting so upset about!’ That’s what Stedman was saying… and that’s why Stedman’s at the guest house,” Oprah said.
But all joking aside, the couple couldn’t take any chances. Oprah went through a difficult bout of pneumonia late last year, and she only just got off of antibiotics for a bronchial infection. So, while Stedman doesn’t have the novel coronavirus, they’re playing it safe.
“Stedman did not arrive from Chicago until Thursday; he had been speaking in St. Louis,” Oprah explained. “He’d been on planes, so Stedman is like, ‘What’s the procedure for coming home?’ The procedure is…you ain’t coming and sleeping in my bed! And literally, he goes, ‘I’m not?’ And I go, ‘Have you not been paying attention to the news? Social distancing does not mean you go and sleep in the same bed with the person! When you just got off American Airlines!'”
It’s not ideal, but then again what is right now? The couple is making the best of their separate togetherness. And even when Oprah is on her own, she doesn’t mind too much. “I’m never bored, because I always have myself. I never feel alone, have never felt alone, because I just love being with myself,” she told Davis. “So this is more time to be with myself without the guilt. Usually it’s like, you’re with yourself but everybody wants to be someplace else. But there’s nowhere to be!”
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