TV Psychic Miss Cleo comes out of the closet

She once ruled late night TV on BET and other channels as Miss Cleo, whose thick Jamaican-accented “Cahl me’now fahr your free tarot card readin’” was widely imitated and is part of pop culture history.

The former informercial psychic, whose real name is Youree Dell Cleomili Harris, has recently come out of the closet in an interview with The Advocate magazine and admits that she is a lesbian. Harris says it was her teen godson who finally convinced her to spill the beans.

“He and I started talking when he was concerned about coming out,” she told the magazine. “He was 16. When he made the decision, I told him I’d be there to support him 100 percent, and he embraced [coming out] wholeheartedly. It’s a different vibe than when I was his age, being raised Catholic in an all-girls boarding school. But he was afraid of nothing, and I thought, I can’t be a hypocrite. This boy is going to force me to put my money where my mouth is.”

Harris, whose informercials ran from the late 1990s through 2002, said some members of her own family still didn’t know that she was a lesbian. She anticipates some static regarding their reaction because of the attitude surrounding homosexuality among blacks.

“The reason it’s scary is because in my personal experience, black cultures throughout the world have a more difficult time accepting homosexuality in their family,” she said. “I have family members who will be shocked; they don’t know. I have some family members who are very close to me, and they do know. But I’ve been afraid of the wrath, of the exile. When I came out to a number of friends in the late ’80s I had a number of friends who turned their backs on me and walked away.”

On the late-night infomercials, Miss Cleo said she was a mystical shaman from Jamaica. But a Florida newspaper reported that she had been born in Los Angeles. Harris simply says, “I am who I say I am,” and insists she has Jamaican roots. She says she’s actually not a psychic but more of a spiritual counselor or spiritual adviser.

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