Jodie Foster Kept Quiet About Her Love Life For Over Three Decades Before Finally Coming Out In Her 50s

Apr 03, 2023

Jodie Foster has been captivating audiences for years as an actress, director and producer in the film and television industry. She has played many critically acclaimed roles, with one of her most notable in the classic psychological horror film “The Silence of the Lambs.” Foster has received numerous awards and nominations over the span of her career and continues to make an impact on the entertainment industry to this day.

Foster was born Alicia Christian Foster on Nov. 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. The nickname “Jodie” stuck after her siblings began referring to her as such. Her career got off to a strong start as she began appearing in televised advertisements before landing roles in both movies and TV shows. As she picked up more challenging jobs, she received even more fantastic feedback from both fans and critics. 

Although there were some people that scrutinized her, Foster never gave up on her goals and ambitions and continued to work as an actress, director and producer in the entertainment industry. Something that a lot of people were interested in was finding out more about Foster’s personal life, especially who she was dating. 

Throughout her many years in the public eye, people began questioning her sexuality and wanted answers, which Foster gave during some pivotal moments in her career, albeit much later in her life. She first revealed her relationship in 2007, before officially coming out in 2013, although she has yet to put a defining label on herself. Although not too much about her relationships has been mentioned publicly, Foster is now happily married to actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison. 

Foster showed great promise from an early age, as she learned to read at the young age of 3. She attended a French-language preparatory school called Lycee Francais de Los Angeles, which helped her become bilingual in both English and French. This talent came in handy later in her career as she has been able to dub her own films and can act easily in French movies.

Her excellence as a student progressed as she was named the school’s valedictorian for her graduating class in 1980. Foster later attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and studied African-American literature. She was already working as an actress but slowed down to focus more on her studies before she graduated magna cum laude in 1985. Her time with the university was not over yet, as she was later recognized in 2018 and awarded the Yale Undergraduate Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Sadly, the star struggled to find work after her graduation as most of the projects she worked on were not critically successful. Foster’s career had first begun when she tagged along to casting calls and auditions with her older brother Buddy at the incredibly young age of 3. The actress made her first-ever televised appearance in a Coppertone advertisement in 1965, which ignited the spark for her potential career. She later starred alongside her brother in a small role in the sitcom “Mayberry R.F.D.” in 1968. Foster seemed unstoppable when her career started, as she was able to show off more and more talents as she grew up and continued to land jobs.

She picked up numerous roles in both advertising and television series before landing her feature film debut in “Napoleon and Samantha” in 1972. In the movie, Foster played a girl who befriended a boy and his pet lion. An accident on set led to Foster being grabbed by the lion, which left her covered with scars on her back. Nonetheless, Foster persisted and continued to land more incredible roles and take advantage of the great opportunities thrown her way. 

As Foster got older, she started taking on more challenging roles and even some controversial ones. Film director Martin Scorsese cast Foster as a child prostitute in the 1976 movie “Taxi Driver” opposite Robert De Niro. Foster was accompanied by a social worker while on set, and the crew worked around the fact that Foster was only a minor at the time of filming by having her older sister work as her stand-in during the more suggestive scenes. “Taxi Driver” went on to receive rave reviews and great recognition and also helped launch Foster to a more serious level in her career. 

John W. Hinchley, Jr. had grown an extreme fascination and obsession with Foster after watching her in “Taxi Driver” to the point that he began stalking her in 1980. He moved to New Haven and tried to contact the actress multiple times. On March 30, 1981, Hinckley attempted to assassinate United States President Ronald Reagan with the intent of impressing Foster. Foster later opened up about the incident and the way it impacted her through an essay titled “Why Me?” which was published by Esquire in 1982.

Foster’s age never stood in the way of landing more critical roles and showing off all of her talents. In 1976, Foster acted in the British musical film “Bugsy Malone.” This movie was extremely different from others at the time as the leading stars were all children parodying Prohibition Era gangsters. The Chicago Sun-Times’s review of her performance only helped her career as she was praised for the amazing work she was putting out. “It’s an original, a charming one, and it has yet another special performance by Jodie Foster, who at 13 was already getting the roles that grown-up actresses complained weren’t being written for women anymore,” Roger Ebert wrote.

Foster continued to prove herself and break more barriers in the entertainment industry. She hosted “Saturday Night Live” in November 1976 and was the youngest person to do so until 1982, when then-7-year-old Drew Barrymore hosted. In 1988, Foster made her directorial debut with an episode of the horror series “Tales from the Darkside.” The first film she directed, “Little Man Tate,” was released three years later, in October 1991.

The 1988 movie “The Accused” was Foster’s real breakthrough into consistently landing adult roles as an actress. The film was based on a real criminal case that prompted a national debate and encouraged new legislation in the United States. The topic was a difficult one to cover in “The Accused,” as the subject matter was heavy for the cast, crew and audience, but it ultimately received rave reviews and helped Foster earn a handful of awards. 

The next movie Foster starred in was even more successful than the last. “The Silence of the Lambs” was one of the biggest hits in 1991 as it received plenty of positive reviews and helped the actress add even more trophies to her growing stack of awards. Foster played the character of Clarice Starling, who was viewed as a female heroine, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Although it was yet another turning point in Foster’s career, there was a downside to starring in the film as some people criticized her performance and began speculating about her sexuality.

Despite this, Foster still picked up jobs and worked on more feature films throughout the 1990s, although none of them were extremely successful or as impactful as “The Accused” and “The Silence of the Lambs.” Her resurgence in the 2000s began with more jobs as a director or producer, although she still continued working as an actress as well. She took on the main role in the thriller “Panic Room,” replacing Nicole Kidman, who had to step down due to an injury. “Panic Room” was a hit and became one of the most successful film openings in Foster’s career.

As time rolled on into the 2010s, the actress shifted even more away from being in front of the camera and instead opted for more work behind it as a director. She released more films and television episodes as a director, including “The Beaver” in 2011, “Money Monster” in 2016, and episodes for “Orange is the New Black,” “House of Cards” and “Black Mirror.”

During an interview with The Guardian in July 2018, Foster, who was 55 at the time, talked about her transition from actress to director. “There are just not that many roles for this age,” she said. “But I anticipated it and I feel like I made hay in my younger years and I can express myself by directing.” Foster also talked more about some of her past roles, especially how she tended to opt for the more challenging ones rather than the stereotypically feminine ones. “I was never interested in a career for a career’s sake,” Foster said. “I just wanted to tell the stories I find interesting and I wasn’t very good (at) playing the girlfriend.” 

While this motto sometimes failed Foster and some of her movies were not successful, she wouldn’t have done anything differently. “Some of my movies haven’t worked, but at least I held to the same principle,” she said.

"That’s why I’m not the richest actor, or the most successful. But I think I’ve had the longest career.”

A long and busy career like Foster’s doesn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated, and the star has been decorated with plenty of awards and accolades over the years. Some of Foster’s most prestigious awards include her Academy Awards for Best Actress for both “Taxi Driver” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” three Golden Globe Awards, with one recognizing her talent in “The Accused” and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her work in the motion picture “Nell.”

Additionally, People magazine named her the most beautiful woman in the world in 1992. Foster was given her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016 for her work in motion pictures.

Foster’s sexuality had been a hot topic of conversation throughout her career, especially after critics and fans claimed there was apparent homophobia and transphobia portrayed in “The Silence of the Lambs.”

One of the first notable moments when Foster was pressed about her romantic life took place in 1979 when she was just 17 years old. During an interview, the teen star was pressed about whether she had a boyfriend. Foster replied nonplussed: "No, no, I don't have time. And I suppose I don't think about it very much." Unsatisfied with her answer, the interviewer asked her "what kind of fella" she liked. After pausing for a brief moment, the actress replied: "Ha, I don't know. I suppose I would like somebody who understood my business." A video of the interview went viral in recent years, with the caption "gay silence."

At that time, Foster didn't share details of her personal life and kept mum on the truth about her sexuality. This is not uncommon in the entertainment industry, as stars — going as far back as Hollywood's Golden Age to more recent times — have often not publicly come out until much later in their careers, if ever. 

As an adult, Foster met producer Cydney Bernard on the set of “Sommersby” in 1993, and the two were in a quiet relationship until 2008, despite having two children together. Even during Foster's two pregnancies, the press was never privy to who the father was.

Foster and Bernard later went public with their love in 2007 when Foster acknowledged their relationship during her speech at the Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast. It was nearly 30 years from when Foster first dodged questions about her private life at 17 to going public with her relationship, and another six years before she publicly came out.

Foster once again addressed the fact that she was part of the LGBTQ+ community during a speech at the Golden Globe Awards in 2013. “I hope you’re not disappointed that there won’t be a big coming-out speech tonight, because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the stone age,” Foster said. “But now I’m told, apparently, that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference and a primetime reality show. I’m sorry, that’s just not me.”

Later, actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison became the apple of Foster’s eye, and the two married in April 2014, just one year after they began dating. Hedison’s work can be found in both public and private collections all over the world. According to Hedison’s official website, her work “addresses the interstices between tradition and novelty by exploring the transitions between the two.” Her photographs represent the encounter between an individual and the surrounding landscape.

Hedison has had a few small roles in both movies and TV shows, as well as a recurring role on the Showtime drama “The L Word.” In February 2021, People reported that she found acting unsatisfying, despite growing up in Hollywood and constantly being surrounded by celebrities and important figures.   

Foster has stepped out with her wife on numerous occasions, including at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where they held hands on the red carpet and shared a kiss, as well as at the 2021 Golden Globe Awards, where she thanked Hedison after she won Best Supporting Actress. The star said: "I love my wife! Thank you Alex," before giving her a kiss during the ceremony's live stream.  

Instead of acting, Hedison pursued her real passion for photography and did whatever she had to to make it her career. “I have to do my photography because that’s my work and it makes me so happy,” Hedison said during an interview with the New York Times in 2004. 

However, the photographer’s relationship with Foster wasn’t her first public relationship with someone in the entertainment industry. She dated comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres from 2000 until 2004. Hedison had been nothing but supportive to her loved ones during various relationships, and she has continued to showcase that in her marriage to Foster. 

After the 2021 Golden Globe nominations were announced, Hedison congratulated her wife in a sweet Instagram post. “Every day I’m a proud wife but today you get a special shout out in the remote land of IG,” she wrote. Foster ended up winning and accepted her award remotely with Hedison, who shared another cute moment of the two cuddled up together to celebrate. “Proud of you everyday but this one was especially fun,” Hedison wrote in the video’s caption.

Foster has been a pivotal figure in the entertainment industry for over 50 years and continues to grace the big and small screens today. She has received a mix of feedback over the years, including positive reviews, harsh criticism and major speculation about her personal life. Through it all, Foster has managed to stay on top and continues to flourish as an actress and director. During her busy life, she found love with her wife Hedison in the early 2010s, and the two have been happily together ever since.

What do you think about Jodie Foster and all the speculation around her personal life? Do you think celebrities owe the public a statement about their romantic lives? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to send this to your friends and family to see what they think.