Al Reynolds opens up on his failed marriage to Star Jones
Posted on July 16th, 2008 by Hot Momma
Perhaps well after the media’s interest in his failed marriage to Star Jones has faded, Al Reynolds has decided to open up. Al wants everyone to now know his side of the story and to clear his reputation. And he has hired a PR firm that has released here, several videos on YouTube, saying he wants to public to get to know him.
Reynold’s PR guy Howard Bragman, went on CNN Headline news to show segments from the video clips and explain Reynold’s motivations. He said his client “is a very different person than that guy who’s been characterized by the media.”
He said “enough time has passed that it’s time for him to define himself exclusive of Star Jones” and that they needed to address these topics in the media.
On the rumors that he’s gay (bloggers often refer to him as “Big Gay Al”)
Reynolds says he’s not a homosexual and that people should know the damage the speculation has caused to his professional and personal life. Reynolds explained that he’s from humble beginnings in the South and that he was taught as a child to take great pride in his appearance. He said “some people call that kind of soft” and he said “metrosexual” is also an acceptable term.
On having his own career
He said he used to work on Wall Street managing multimillion dollar accounts well before he met Star and that he now works as a professor and is getting his doctorate. Reynolds said “that trumps all the gossip.” He also says that he had an agreement with Star to leave his career and support hers instead.
On the endorsements Star got for their wedding
Star Jones was widely criticized for getting companies to provide free services for her 2004 wedding to Reynolds by promoting them on The View, the talkshow she co-hosted at the time. It became a huge controversy and contributed to Star’s abrupt departure from the show.
Reynolds said: “I wasn’t aware of all the endorsement stuff. I have to be honest with you. A lot of this, when I came into it, I just thought maybe that’s how it is for celebrities. Clearly, as a businessman if I knew this was going to affect us and our marriage in any way I would never have allowed us to participate in the nature that we did.” He went on to add that it’s not like any of the companies who endorsed the wedding had any complaints though.
The PR guy said that it wasn’t like Reynolds was oblivious to the sponsorships of their wedding, but that he stepped back and let Star plan everything and he just wasn’t aware of the implications.
On why his marriage ended:
I don’t know if I can point to a specific thing that happened,” said Reynolds. “I felt like we started to grow apart. I took a position down in Florida. I started working aggressively on my book. She was trying to get her show off the ground. We were also trying to deal with all the negative stuff after we allowed the media into our marriage.”
On Reynolds writing a book
He said “Being in the public eye, I definitely want to use this opportunity to educate and motivate and inspire people.”
He’s writing a financial how-to book to help people manage their money. He’s not going to write a tell-all, explains his PR person, and he’s not about to trash Jones. There was a pre-nup and a confidentiality agreement, and he probably can’t do that without repercussions anyway.
On his relationship with Star now:
Reynolds said “We’re cordial, but this is a difficult time for [us] and it’s actually one of the reasons I decided to speak.” He got all teary-eyed and said “Our relationship is a little tender and hopefully over time we can heal a lot of that and we can become friends again. That’s what really is how we started this relationship.” He said “I never really dated anyone like Star before… I fell in love with her mind.”
Al admitted he still wears his wedding ring and added “it hasn’t settled in yet, I still love her.” His PR guy said he doesn’t want to get back together with Star, but that it’s still painful for him. Star and Reynolds are not talking now.
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I don’t think it was only Star who is too be blamed. He is just covering his own bad deals.