Straight Stars Who Keep Getting Labeled As Gay

For some celebs, no amount of denials, dismissals, or high-profile hookups will convince the world that they're hetero. Whether it's their style, their hobbies, or just hunches, these famous men and women can't seem to set the record straight about their sexuality.

TV and radio personality Ryan Seacrest has been perpetually stuck inside a rumor mill surrounding his sexuality. Even dancer and singer Julianne Hough, who dated him for two years, admitted she thought he was gay before they became an item. Seacrest might have American Idol judge Simon Cowell to credit for some of that buzz, since Cowell teased him on air to "come out" of the closet and suggested he had experience wearing high heels during an early episode of the show.

Bradley Cooper's dating record is chock full of models and actresses, but there are those who insist the actor's very public romantic entanglements are a ruse for more private affairs with other men. Cooper isn't bothered by that kind of chatter. In fact, the first time he was at the center of a rumored gay relationship, he whipped out his own silver linings playbook and said he thought it was "fantastic." He even played along when he was a presenter at the 2015 Tony Awards and a gay joke was made at his expense during his introduction.

Whoopi Goldberg's performance prowess is so strong that she's one of the few actresses to garner Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards, and yet she's never quite been able to convince audiences that she's a straight woman. Even though she's dated several famous men, including Ted Danson, Timothy Dalton, and Danny Glover, the Ghost actress has long been haunted by the rumor mill. Goldberg attributes the confusion to her long-standing involvement with the LGBTQ community and to her portrayal of homosexual characters in Boys on the Side (1995) and The Color Purple (1985). She told Pride Source that she's always been "pretty clear" about her sexuality. "You've never seen me with a woman. Pretty much been married to men the whole time," she said. "I'm straight."

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter firmly declared that she is "absolutely" not gay more than a decade ago, and she has children with husband Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean, but speculation surrounding her sexuality continues to linger. She wrote on her website that the rumors began when she was young. "I had the baggy/braided/tough NY tomboy thing mastered, that was who I was (or who I chose to be) and I felt good there," she said. "Then, because of the way I spoke or carried myself, people started calling me gay and hard and I wasn't gay, but I was hard and although I felt comfortable there, it made me uncomfortable that people were judging me..."

James Franco has definitely fanned the flames when it comes to the debate about his sexual preferences. The multi-hyphenate told MTV News that banter about his bedroom behavior began back in high school, when he was mean-girled by other classmates. "Like if people think that, it's fine. I really don't care," he said. Franco has willingly contributed to the gossip with inconclusive interview responses and by publicly kissing a male friend to poke fun at the chatter. He even wrote a piece for dot429 in which "Straight James" and "Gay James" interview one another. For Franco, it seems this is all just another performance opportunity, and he has no problem playing along.

Pop star Pink has been married for more than a decade and has a daughter with motocross star Carey Hart, but she has frequently been labeled bisexual by the tabloids. The singer was at the center of a fiasco in 2009 involving a publication allegedly fabricating an interview about her sexuality. Though she maintains her identity as heterosexual, Pink said she has been considered an "honorary lesbian" because she has so many friends who are, and she's a proud advocate for gay rights and marriage equality. "Some of the greatest people I've met in my life happen to be gay people and I find that very hard to ignore, I find it very hard to be around racist or homophobic people," she told Gay Star News.

The Criminal Minds star has shot down rumors about the company he keeps on numerous occasions. Shemar Moore's Instagram fueled much chatter in 2006 when he posted a casual pic in close contact with a male friend. The actor clapped back at all the frenzied feedback via a video explaining the photo and admitting he's ("just too real and too old for this s**t), preceded by a selfie of his six pack and the following message: "...I would just like to say I LOVE women and life and people!!! I do not discriminate or allow people to feel small....PERIOD!!! Say what you want...Heeeeeeeeey BABY GIRLS n Fans!!! Keep it SILLY n SEXY!!! Kisses n Thangs!!!"

The Harry Potter star has been in the public eye since he was just a boy wizard, and he's been fielding rumors about his personal life nearly the entire time. Stories about Daniel Radcliffe's love life increased in frequency after he began working with the The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth. He told MTV News that he is not bothered by the speculation, saying, "If people want to say that, they can. But I'm not. I'm straight."

The Smith family is a Hollywood powerhouse, yet there are some who believe they've built their entertainment empire on a foundation of lies. In one particularly explosive exposé in 2016, actress Alexis Arquette claimed Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith were "bearding" for one another and that Smith's first marriage to Sheree Fletcher ended after she walked in on him with another man. Fletcher herself vehemently denied that story and declared, "Will was straight in 1992, and he's straight in 2016."

Oprah Winfrey has been in a steady relationship with beau Stedman Graham for decades, yet many believe their decision to not marry is partly due to a romantic relationship with her long-time bestie, Gayle King. While the ladies have laughed off the scuttlebutt surrounding their friendship, the TV guru has also made a point to be crystal clear about the truth. "I'm not a lesbian. I'm not even kind of a lesbian," she told Barbara Walters in 2010. "And the reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I'm lying. That's number one. Number two...why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life."