André Leon Talley admits his relationship with Vogue's Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour "is in an iceberg".
André Leon Talley
The former Editor-At-Large at the fashion bible's new memoir, 'The Chiffon Trenches', is a "love letter" to Anna, according to André, even though he claims the 70-year-old journalist is "not capable of simple human kindness".
And in a new interview about his book, André has addressed his controversial comments in the tome and admitted Anna will be "hurt" when she reads it.
Speaking to Gayle King on 'CBS This Morning', he confessed: "I think my relationship is in an iceberg with her.
"I hope that it will not be that forever."
The host asked him: "I looked at that André and I went, 'Love letter?' If that's your idea of a love letter I'm thinking I don't want you to like me at all.
"How do you explain that? I thought this must be very painful for her to read. Seriously."
And he replied: "Indeed, it is probably very hard for her to read.
"It was painful for me to write this."
André, also 70, insisted that it's a "love letter" because he spent many joyous times with Anna and he has her to thank for becoming the first black man in such a prestigious role at the publication.
He continued: "But it is a love letter because it's a love letter about the joys as well as the lows of my life.
"And the joys of my life have been with Anna Wintour.
"I owe to her the pioneering role that I had of a creative director of Vogue.
"I was the first black man to ever be named such. I owe that to Anna Wintour. I owe her much. And I think, in turn, I think she owes me."
Quizzed on what Anna owes him, he responded: "She owes me kindness and simple grace and being decent when things go south."
The writer went on to slam Anna for going behind his back when he was ditched from his regular job conducting interviews on the Met Gala red carpet in 2018.
He said: "I understand changes are made in a corporate institution at Vogue.
"When she decides that I'm no longer working on the carpet for the Met Gala, just call me and say 'André we're moving in a new direction, you've been wonderful, I love what you're doing, but now we're going with the young influencers who know nothing because they have 20 million followers on YouTube.'
"Just say it to me. No one had come to say to me why I was taken off the red carpet."
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