Jodie Foster Comes Out in Show-Stopping Golden Globes Speech

After the red carpet fashions and award winnres at last night's Golden Globes, there was one more surprise: the standout speech by Jodie Foster. Foster took the stage as this year's winner of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, which had been announced previously. Not only did she accept the award, but she took the opportunity to come out in her most public way.

Foster suggested that she had a big announcement that would make her publicist nervous, and then she stated: "I'm just going to put it out there, loud and proud ... I am, uh, single," pausing for dramatic effect before that last word. "I hope you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight. I already did my coming-out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age. Those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers, and then gradually and proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met."

Foster joked that celebrities are expected to reveal they're gay "with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show. And you guys might be surprised, but I am not Honey Boo Boo Child. No. I'm sorry. That's just not me. It never was and it never will be. But please don't cry, because my reality show would be so boring."

"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 odds, then maybe you, too, might value privacy above all else."

Foster thanked Cydney Bernard, a production manager whom she identified as "my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life," her former partner of 20 years--a relationship she never hid and from which she has two sons.

As for why she chose this place and time to discuss her private life, Foster explained backstage to the Associated Press: "The speech kind of speaks for itself. ... It's a big moment. I wanted to say what's most in my heart."

Watch the whole speech below:

Read reactions from fellow celebrities such as Rosie O'Donnell, Andy Cohen, and Ricky Martin here