Portrait from the cover of OUT

Morning Campers! And if the miserable grey grizzly weather has been affecting the temperature of your cockles, then THIS little story is just what the doctor ordered. Lovely US gay magazine, OUT, commissioned Tom Ford AND his long term boyfriend, Richard Buckley, to each write the story of their relationship. And it's REALLY CUTE! (like, unbearably cute).

The story begins 24 years ago, when Tom was 25 and working for little known sporty/high street designer Cathy Hardwick, and Richard - who was 38 when they met - was a fashion editor at WWD magazine in New York, having just come back from living in Paris for a few years. When they ‘rode the elevator’ together, Tom thought that Richard was ‘adorable, and he was a complete fool. He was sort of dancing around, flashing his eyes at me, and trying so hard to be charming. I decided in that elevator ride that I was going to marry him. I’m very pragmatic, and I was, like, OK, there’s some kind of connection here.’

Richard was no less smitten, thinking to himself on their first date ‘as we talked about other things, it was almost like seeing down a rabbit hole. I felt like I was looking at his eyes, and it was just spinning around and taking me down inside him. I could see he was a good man with a big heart. It wasn’t a physical thing as much as it was a psychic wave.’

They’ve been together ever since, through Tom’s meteoric career rise, Richard’s diagnosis and recovery from throat cancer and much more besides. Because of Tom’s risqué boob-flashing designs and even more outrageous photographic Gucci ads, not to mention his penchant for nakedness at ANY opportunity, people sometimes assume he must be a shagger of Russell Brand-like proportions. Not a bit of it. When acquaintances express surprise over the longevity of their relationship, Tom thinks; '“Why? What are you talking about?” Some of the longest relationships I know of are same-sex couples. . . I think that preconception, that being gay is possibly more sex-based than emotionally based, is surprising and shocking in today’s world. I’m someone who likes being part of a couple and always wanted that and always sought that . . . Richard and I are bound together, and I think that’s what that recognition is when you look someone in the eyes and you feel like you’ve known them forever. It is a kind of coming home'.

*Dabs eyes and blows nose* That is soooo nice!