Lily Tomlin explains why she refused to come out on Time magazine cover in 1975

'I wasn’t going to play their game'

Lily Tomlin has revealed why she turned down the chance to come out on the cover of Time magazine in 1975.

Appearing on The Ellen Show on Tuesday alongside Grace and Frankie co-star Jane Fonda, Tomlin explained her decision to host Ellen DeGeneres, who herself publicly came out when she featured on the cover of Time in 1997 alongside the words: “Yep, I’m gay.”

“It was a hard decision to make,” Tomlin explained.

“I fell down on the side of … probably after what you [Degeneres] went through, probably good sense."

Tomlin, who was nominated for an Oscar after starring in her first film, Nashville, in 1975, told the host it was made clear by the publication that she would only be on the cover of the magazine if she revealed her sexuality.

“I decided that I just wasn’t going to play their game,” she said, explaining that she wasn’t ready to come out publicly at that point.

The actor, who was living with her partner Jane Wagner at the time, added that she also didn’t want her sexuality to overshadow her career as an actor and comedian.

“I wanted to be acknowledged for my performance,” explained the 79-year-old.

After the revelations, Fonda joked: “If they put me on the cover of Time, I’ll come out.”

In 2015, Tomlin revealed that what ultimately kept her from making a public pronouncement about her sexuality was a personal consideration, explaining that she waited until after her mother died to come out as a lesbian.

"My mother would have died. Literally. If she’d lived to see me come out," she told The Telegraph.

“Bless her heart, she was Southern, basically fundamentalist, but she was very witty and sweet and kind and she adored Jane.

“She died 10 years ago. She was 91. So that was always kind of a dilemma for me.”

Tomlin married her partner of 42 years, Wagner, on New Year's Eve in 2013.