Oprah Winfrey won’t be quarantining by herself anymore.
Winfrey and Stedman Graham, her longtime partner, reunited under one roof after he self-quarantined himself for 14 days after potentially being exposed to COVID-19 while traveling. Although Graham, 69, showed no symptoms, he wanted to protect Winfrey, 66, by self-isolating for two weeks.
In a video posted last week on the Instagram account of O, Oprah’s magazine, Graham was greeted by Winfrey and a welcome song from two former students of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy of Girls.
When one of the girls asked how he was doing, Stedman replied, “Free, free at last.”
“I bet you appreciate us more now,” Winfrey said in response, referring to herself and the two girls.
“I appreciated you before, honey,” Graham told her.
On March 23, Winfrey explained Graham’s decision to self-quarantine in an Instagram Live conversation with the editor of O. Last September, Winfrey was diagnosed with a “very serious” case of pneumonia and recently finished a course of antibiotics for a bronchial infection.
When Stedman returned home from a recent business trip, Winfrey told him that he had to self-quarantine in their guesthouse.
“Have you not been paying attention to the news?” Winfrey said to him. “Social distancing doesn’t mean you go and sleep in the same bed with the person! When you just got off American Airlines!”
Winfrey regularly updated her magazine’s Instagram with videos, frequently leaving meals at his doorstep and conversing with Stedman from a distance. She added that he did not show any coronavirus symptoms.
“My friends say ‘Oh, isn’t Stedman upset?’” Winfrey said in the Instagram Live interview. “He’s really not. He’s happy to keep me safe.”