Holland Taylor: 'I Am Out. I Live Out.'

Holland Taylor, known for her role as bisexual grandmother Evelyn Harper on Two and a Half Men, her stunning Broadway performance as Ann Richards, and whom many fans fondly remember for her hilarious jabs as Peggy Peabody on The L Word, has had a long career in theater and film, during which time she’s maintained privacy about her personal life.

At 72-years-old, Taylor publically talked about her sexual identity for the first time in a recent interview with WNYC. When the conversation turns to Taylor’s long-term relationship, Death, Sex & Money host Anna Sale asks, “Do you find yourself enticed by marriage?”

“Well, my relationship is with a woman,” Taylor responds, “and I have not — given my generation it would not be something that would automatically occur to me. But she's mentioned it because just from a spiritual point of view, from a heart point of view, as a — as a — as a deed that has a very rich symbolic gesture to it, it has its attraction. But it's been a very casual conversation at this point. But it’s not — it would be a very private thing. I would not do that publicly. But as a symbol, as a pledge, as a plighting one's troth I would see it — that it would be a wonderful thing to do.”

When pressed for her girlfriend’s name, Taylor is as reserved as she’s always been.

“Well I feel at this point in the conversation it feels kind of awkward. Now I feel very very shy of it. I’ve been really wrestling with this lately because most of my relationships have been with women and I don’t like talking about them because I don’t like talking about the politics of it all because I’m not political about it. I think we’re ridiculous in this country about it. Ridiculous. And so, it’s awkward because if I talk about relationships in my life or people that have been in my life, or somebody I’ve been seeing for a while or this, that and the other thing, I’d like to be able to just say that, without having to stop and say, ‘so have you come out?’ No, I haven’t come out because I am out. I live out.”

This is the first time Taylor has ever discussed her relationship with a woman to the press, but she does share one thing about her girlfriend: “There’s a very big age difference between us which I’m sure shocks a lot of people, and it startles me.” Startled as she may be, Taylor doesn’t seem too torn about dating a much younger woman, as she dryly concludes, “But as they say, ‘If she dies, she dies.”

Listen to the rest of the interview below: