TOM FORD AND PARTNER APPEAR ON COVER

Designer and film director Tom Ford appears on the cover of the latest Out magazine kissing his partner of 24 years, Richard Buckley.

The upcoming issue of the American magazine celebrates love and relationships in the gay community and features 23 “love stories”.

In an interview with Out, Ford (49) talks about his relationship with Buckley (63).

“One of the things that always amuses me – amuses isn’t even the right word, because it doesn’t amuse me – but often, I’m at dinner parties with very close friends, straight, and they realize that Richard and I have been together 24 years, and the response is often, ‘Wow, you guys have been together 24 years! That’s so amazing. I don’t think of gay men being together that long.’ And I’m, like, ‘Why? What are you talking about?’

“Some of the longest relationships I know of are same-sex couples. A lot of my straight friends have married and divorced and married and divorced in the time Richard and I have been together. I think that preconception, from even very educated liberal friends, that being gay is possibly more sex-based than emotionally based, is surprising and shocking in today’s world.”

Ford became famous for heading up the Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent fashion labels. He has since started his own Tom Ford brand and directed the acclaimed 2009 film A Single Man.