Renee Zellweger Addresses Rumors About Ex-Husband Kenny Chesney

Renée Zellweger doesn't take kindly to insinuations that her ex-husband, country singer Kenny Chesney, is gay.

The couple wed in May 2005, only to annul the marriage four months later, citing "fraud" in the paperwork. When the press couldn't figure out what that fraud entailed, rumors grew rampant that Chesney's sexuality was the culprit—something Zellweger denied at the time. "[The term] fraud...was simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny's character," her rep said in a statement (via People).

Now that Zellweger is making the press rounds after a long hiatus for Bridget Jones' Baby (2016), she's being asked about her brief marriage and its aftermath once again. When the Advocate asked the Oscar winner about the Chesney chatter, she admitted, "I forgot about that. It's a pretty big thing to forget, isn't it? That made me sad," she said. "It made me sad that somehow people were using that as a way to be cruel and calling someone gay as a pejorative, which has fateful consequences. Of course, there's the bigger-picture problem of why anyone had to make up a story at all."

Still, that doesn't necessarily mean Zellweger was quick to jump to the "Noise" singer's defense about the homosexuality rumors.

"I'd said all I needed to say on that subject. I'm an old-fashioned gal who doesn't feel it's appropriate to hang out your laundry on the lawn," she told the Advocate. "I feel you devalue yourself as a human being when you share very personal things with a bajillion strangers who are making fun of you. I just don't see that there's any dignity in that. But sometimes it is difficult to just let something be what it is, especially when it's unnecessary ugliness. Once you've said your piece, shouldn't that be enough? And why is the ugliness that's perpetuated in the media so attractive to people?"

When the Advocate asked if Zellweger has had any same-sex experiences herself, she admitted that a lesbian friend became smitten with her briefly. "Yes...But I loved her differently," she said. "We talked about it, we laughed, and I was happy she trusted me and that we have a relationship where we could have that conversation."