Dr. Laura Berman Webcast Transcript

 

Luanne: They are just great. Thank you. We are—Gerald and I are getting along great. We're having to—you know, we're communicating really effectively. My friends threw a premiere party for me and it was just fantastic. Everybody—all my friends went home and took their crosses from above their bed and their pictures of the Virgin Mary out of their bedroom. It was—it was fantastic. We had a—we had a great time.

Dr. Berman: A bedroom makeover.

Oprah: Oh, really. People have the crosses over their bed?Yeah, you're right. It would be hard to have great sex with the Virgin Mary looking at you.

Dr. Berman: You have to give your bedroom a sexual makeover. That's very important. That's one of the pieces.

Oprah: That's one of the pieces, yeah.

Dr. Berman: Yeah.

Oprah: Yeah. And so how has it been for you?

Luanne: It—it's been fantastic. Really my—my relationship with Gerald has never been better. Our—

Oprah: Gerald, you can smile if you want to.

Gerald: I'm smiling inside.

Oprah: Yeah. Go ahead.

Luanne: Really we—it's been a great—t's been a great—great couple months for us. It's really just been—we have been just so connected.

Oprah: Wow. That's great.

Luanne: And I really—I can't—I can't express—

Oprah: That's what you want.

Luanne: —how—how different—how—I didn't realize how different having a great sex life would make our overall parenting skills and our life together and our everyday—you know, every day is just great.

Oprah: So, Gerald, I want to know how things have also changed for you because for 24 years she was faking it, and I guess you—if she was faking it, you believed her, and so how is it different now?

Gerald: Well, it's—it's been a lot better in a lot of different areas. My—first off, it's been such a great improvement for Luanne and her—her overall well-being. She's—she's less stressed out.

Oprah: That's what you're talking about.

Gerald: She's able to cope with things a lot better and—and as far as making love, I mean, that's—it's just increased the intensity and the frequency, quite frankly, and she's less inhibited in the bedroom and I—I can tell that she's really enjoying herself a lot more. Or actually probably enjoying herself period for this. But I'm really glad that—that we went through with this, you know. When this whole thing started, I had my doubts. But it's really worked out well for Luanne and ultimately for me. But I'm glad to see that Luanne really seems to be dealing with everything a lot better, and it's hard to believe that an improved sex life could make that much difference in all areas, but it really has.

Oprah: Well, that's exactly what Dr. Berman is trying to teach us all, right?

Dr. Berman: That's right. That's right. And especially in your relationship because what happens when sex isn't working, you're not allies in the same way.

Oprah: You're not connected.

Dr. Berman: You're not connected in the same way, so everything suffers in ways that you may not even recognize at first.

Oprah: Yeah. Yeah. And so I just—you know, I always worry about this for people who come on the show—I mean, I really do. I mean you all were so open about this, and we're still at a point in our country where it's still sort of—not taboo, because this generation is far more open bit. But it's hard to go back home and then there you are in the Kroger Store or Whole Foods and everybody says, "Oh, you're the woman on—that was on Oprah and you never had an orgasm in 24 years." So did you have to deal with any of that?