Is Tom Selleck Gay? (Find out here!)

In this brief guide, we will look at the question Is Tom Selleck gay, as well as other details about Tom Selleck.

Is Tom Selleck Gay?

No, Tom Selleck is not gay, but there have been instances where people have thought for some reason that he was gay and many publications reported it around 1991, which even led to Tom Selleck lashing out about the subject.

Tom Selleck being gay first started being a thing when a supermarket tabloiod called The Globe published a story about him saying that he was gay and made a whole thing about it.

Initially, Tom Selleck objected to being labeled gay when he wasn’t, and his quote from the time is :

“Look, it’s not anti-gay to say you’re not gay, when The Globe printed the gay story, I had made a commitment to my wife, who’d given birth to my daughter. I have a 29-year-old (step)son. This tabloid was implying that I was leading a double life. It was hurtful to other people, which is where I draw the line.”

It is understandable that tom selleck reacted so strongly to being thought of as gay when he wasn’t, and especially when he had a wife and daughter who obviously would get affected by the implication that their husband and father was lying to them and to the world.

It is also completely justified that he wanted to put out statements about not being gay, because saying that someone is gay when they are straight is just as bad as insisting that someone is straight after repeated assertions from them about their homosexuality.

How did the rumor that Tom Selleck is gay start?

There is always gossip about the sexual orientation of an attractive star, especially one that is as burly and significant as Tom Selleck, and therefore, around the 1980s and 90s people started talking about what his sexual orientation was and if he was gay or straight.

While Tom Selleck was fine with people talking about and discussing things about him and his secual orientation, he understandably got angry when the story about him definitely being gay was published in a July 1991 edition of The Globe.

This story about Tom Selleck being gay in came after a group of gay activists called Outpost attempted to “out” various public figures by plastering placards of their faces around New York City earlier in 1991.

The same group posted a photo of Selleck with the phrase “absolutely Q.” as part of their capmpaign as well, and the same thing got picked up by The Globe as well and they published photos of the posters for a story titled “‘Gay’ Stars Stop Traffic.”

The Globe is a supermarket tabloid with a circulation of 1.2 million, and when the story was published Tom Selleck had just married his second wife, who he is still married to, and they had just had their daughter.

This story led to Tom Selleck suing The Globe for libel and invasion of privacy, and part of his claim read the following:

“intended … to directly injure [him] with respect to his family relationships, reputation, character, profession, trade, or business, among other things.” 

Tom Selleck sought $20 million for the above and additional unspecified damages for “shame, mortification, hurt feelings, embarrassment and humiliation, and damage to his peace of mind.”

At the time, Tom Selleck also defended the action of suing the tabloid, saying that ”I thought suing the tabloid was right. I didn’t think in terms of giving them more publicity. There is a very important issue here about how people lie. If truth and justice can still be used in the same sentence — and I think they still can — then this thing will work itself out just fine.”

Also, around the same time that this suit was going on, William Rubenstein, director of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights project, said, ”The burden of proof is on the plaintiff. The newspaper cannot be held liable if there is no actual malice proven — or if the statements are true. In a libel suit, truth is an absolute defense, so it could put his sexual orientation on the stand.” 

There are those that say that the suit also never reached courts because a trial would likely have invaded his privacy more than The Globe had, meaning that it likely wouldn’t be acceptable to him.

This suit was resolved out of court by August 1991 for an undisclosed sum and as part of the settlement, The Globe agreed to publish an apology, which read in part: “By publishing the article, the Globe did not intend to express or imply that Tom Selleck is or ever was a homosexual.”

There is still no clue about where the original posters or stories came from, however, and stories about Tom Selleck being gay come up every so often even now, but the actor has a better outlook to it now, and says:

“I don’t know where it comes from. I guess some folks who are gay want me to be gay. That’s fine with me. You haven’t made it until people want to make up things about you.”

Tom Selleck: Biography

Thomas William Selleck is an American actor and film producer who was born January 29, 1945, and he is most well known for his role as private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I. which ran from 1980 to 1988.

Tom Selleck has also co-starred as New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan in the series Blue Bloods, which has been renewed for its eleventh season in 2020–2021. 

Tom Selleck clearly has a very commanding presence because he has portrayed several police officers, like his role as the troubled small-town police officer chief Jesse Stone in nine made-for-TV movies based on Robert B. Parker novels.

Tom Selleck has also had a distinguished film career, and his most notable role was certainly that of the bachelor architect Peter Mitchell in Three Men and a Baby, a movie that came out in 1987, as well as its sequel. 

He has under his belt about 50 other film and television roles since Magnum, P.I., including the films Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, and Lassiter and many people also know him from his recurring television roles as Monica Geller’s love interest Dr. Richard Burke on Friends, as Lance White, the likeable and naive partner on The Rockford Files, and as casino owner A.J. Cooper in the movie Las Vegas. 

Soon after the rumors about Tom Selleck being gay came around, he also took up a role in a movie called In and Out, where he actually plays a gay man, and this role is particularly famous because he shaved his mustache for it, causing him to have a very different look from the one he usually has.

Here are some other significant movies that Tom Selleck has been in:

• Daughters of Satan
• Terminal Island
• Midway
• The Washington Affair
• Coma
• Superdome
• The Gypsy Warriors
• Concrete Cowboys
• Divorce Wars: A Love Story
• The Shadow Riders
• High Road to China
• Lassiter
• Runaway
• Three Men and a Baby
• Her Alibi
• An Innocent Man
• Quigley Down Under
• Three Men and a Little Lady
• Folks!
• Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
• Mr. Baseball 
• Open Season
• Kids for Character: Choices Count
• The Magic of Flight
• In & Out
• The Love Letter
• Meet the Robinsons
• Killers

Tom Selleck Partner

Tom Selleck has had two partners, and he has been married to his current wife Jillie Mack since 1987.

From 1971 to 1982, Selleck was married to model Jacqueline Ray and he also adopted her son, Kevin Shepard, who many may know as the former drummer for the American rock band, Tonic. 

On August 7, 1987, Selleck married Jillie Joan Mack and they have one daughter, Hannahwho was born December 16, 1988, some time before the controversy about Tom Selleck being gay and subsequently suing the newspaper that printed the libel.

Tom Selleck, his partner and their daughter live in Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village, California, on a 60-acre avocado ranch in Hidden Valley formerly owned by Dean Martin and he has been very vocal about how much he loves it, saying “So I like to get outside and work on the ranch, from fixing roads to clearing brush. I hate going to the gym, so sweating outdoors sure beats sitting on a stationary bike staring at my navel. And I work cheaper than anyone I could hire to do it.”

Tom Selleck is also an accomplished indoor and beach volleyball player, and he plays the outside hitter position for the Outrigger Canoe Club, Honolulu.

His Outrigger Canoe Club teammate Dennis Berg, said about Tom Selleck, “Tom was a great teammate, appreciative of being included with such a talented and experienced group, practicing and playing hard when his Magnum schedule permitted. He was very patient with all of us, and we relished the big crowds that replaced the usual sparse number of players’ friends and spouses at the national tourney matches.”

Additionally, Tom Selleck is also an avid ice hockey fan and has been seen attending Los Angeles Kings games at Staples Center and his favorite players are Anže Kopitar and Alexander Frolov.

He has also been a minority owner of the Detroit Tigers, his favorite baseball team since childhood and when he was getting ready for his role in the movie Mr Baseball, Tom Selleck reached out to the Tigers to practice with them during the spring of 1991. 

In preparing for this role he did batting practice for three weeks, and even made an appearance in an exhibition game against Cincinnati, where Tiger manager Sparky Anderson had him play in the pinch hitter role. 

Tom Selleck has also been very heavily praised by his co-stars as well, as seen in what Larry Manetti, his Magnum co-star, said in his 1996 memoir Aloha Magnum, where he praised Selleck for his extraordinary work ethic on a grueling show where they often shot for hours in the midday Hawaiian sun, his work with the Hawaiian charities, and his willingness to support the program’s cast and crew members.

Conclusion

In this brief guide, we looked at the question Is Tom Selleck gay, as well as other details about Tom Selleck. If you have any other questions similar to “Is Tom Selleck Gay?” please feel free to reach out to us at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Is Tom Selleck Gay?

Citations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Selleck#Personal_life

https://www.gossipcop.com/is-tom-selleck-gay/2559137