By Isabella Torregiani
1:05pm PST, Feb 23, 2026
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On Chelsea Handler's "Dear Chelsea" podcast, Tim Gunn revealed that a painful breakup led him to remain celibate — a choice he continues to this day, 43 years later.
"I had a very serious nine-year relationship in Washington, D.C., and I loved this person deeply and would have done anything for him. And I still remember the night that it all ended," Gunn recalled.
"We were in bed watching M*A*S*H. … He said to me, 'I have no patience for you any longer. I want you to leave.' I had my own apartment, but I had been living with him for years, and I left. I drove to my apartment on Rock Creek Parkway, and I had to pull off because I was hyperventilating. I was beside myself with self-flagellation and self-pity, and it was awful."
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Tim Gunn, executive producer of the Bravo reality series Project Runway from 2004 to 2017, noted that his former partner was also a colleague.
"So it wasn't as though I just would never see him again," he said. "One of the things that he told me that night was that he'd been sleeping with just about everything that walked by, and I had been loyal and faithful to him. He was the only person I'd ever been with."
The pain of that breakup stayed with him, leaving him wary of intimacy and hesitant to pursue serious relationships.
"The self-pity then turned to completely unbridled anger because I thought he may have given me a death sentence," Gunn recalled, adding that he got tested "every six months for 10 years for HIV" and "thankfully had a clean slate."
"But whenever I was even tempted to engage in something that could become serious with someone, all this would come back like Niagara Falls, and it would just take the desire away," he added.
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Tim Gunn admitted that staying celibate has not been without its struggles.
"I have to say, being celibate and being someone who lives alone was a bit of an adjustment, but now I wouldn't have it any other way," he said.
Gunn is currently single and generally keeps his personal life private.
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Looking back, Tim Gunn said the experience ultimately turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
"Things happen for a reason, and sometimes the reason isn't revealed at the moment," he explained.
"It may not be revealed for days, weeks or months — or sometimes even years. But had this relationship not fallen apart, I would never have moved to New York. It would never have happened," he said.
