Hollywood actress Jodie Foster confirmed long-running speculation that she is gay by coming out at the Golden Globes awards on Sunday, but joked she wouldn't be holding a news conference to discuss her private life.

 

The notoriously private Foster stunned² the audience of stars and Hollywood powerbrokers as she accepted a life-time achievement awarded by announcing she was now single.

 

"Seriously, I hope that you're not disappointed that there won't be a big-coming-out speech tonight," she said, "because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age."

 

Foster said she had always been up front with trusted friends and family about her sexual orientation³.

 

"But now apparently⁴, I'm told that every celebrity⁵ is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference ... that's just not me," she said.

 

Foster, 50, then talked to her "ex-partner in love" Cydney Bernard, from whom she recently split, and their two sons in the audience.

 

"Thank you Cyd, I am so proud of our modern family, our amazing sons," Foster said.

 

Over the years, Foster had come under withering⁶ criticism from the gay community for not publicly recognizing she was gay.

 

The two-time best actress Oscar winner for "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Accused" said she had valued her privacy because of her early acting⁷ career, which started at the age of three.

 

"If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds⁸, then maybe you, too, might value privacy above all else," she said.

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