Renée Zellweger Just Spoke Out About Kenny Chesney’s Gay Rumors, and What She Said Has the Internet on Fire

Renée Zellweger has spoken openly about her brief marriage to country singer Kenny Chesney and the rumors that surfaced after their split. In a new interview with The Advocate published on September 8, the actress addressed the speculation that arose when she filed for an annulment just four months after their May 2005 wedding, citing “fraud” as the legal reason.

The filing sparked widespread gossip that Chesney was gay — something Zellweger says made her deeply uncomfortable.

“I forgot about that. It’s a pretty big thing to forget, isn’t it? That made me sad,” she told the outlet. “It made me sad that people were using that as a way to be cruel, and that calling someone gay was treated like a negative, which can have real consequences. And, of course, the bigger issue is why anyone had to invent a story in the first place.”

Shortly after filing in September 2005, Zellweger released a statement clarifying that “fraud” was simply legal terminology and “not a reflection of Kenny’s character.”

Asked if she felt compelled to defend Chesney at the time, Zellweger said, “I’d said all I needed to say on that subject. I’m old-fashioned and don’t think it’s right to air personal matters publicly. You diminish yourself when you share intimate details with countless strangers who are mocking you. There’s no dignity in that. But it can be hard to let something go when it’s unnecessary ugliness. Once you’ve said your piece, shouldn’t that be enough? And why is that kind of negativity so appealing to people?”

At the time, the couple also released a joint statement, attributing the end of their marriage to a “miscommunication of the objective of their marriage.”

Chesney has since addressed the rumors directly. Speaking to Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes in 2007, he said, “It’s not true. Period. Maybe I should have said, ‘No, I’m not,’ but I didn’t want to bring more attention to it. I didn’t feel I needed to prove anything to anyone.”