Calvin Klein and Kevin Baker: 10 years of a relationship that continues to stir controversy

BarcelonaSince many people are unaware, it needs to be stated: Calvin Klein is not underwear, he is a person. Specifically, an 83-year-old man to whom the establishment of minimalism in clothing as a desirable element can be attributed, and who can be perfectly considered one of the greatest emblems of American fashion of all time. However, in recent times, Mr. Klein has been more in the news for matters related to his private life than for anything related to his mark on the more pop side of fashion history.

And it is that the veteran founder of the eponymous firm maintains a romantic relationship – which this 2026 marks ten years – with a 37-year-old man, and this always ends up becoming a cause for debate (not to say attack...). Whenever they appear together at an event, the media that reports on it or on social media, the avalanche of comments against him, against his boyfriend, or against both is very notable. It seems that the 46-year age gap is not something bearable for large segments of society. A figure that, as it happens, does not bother this same group as much when it separates a mature gentleman and a woman in the prime of her life. And this, in many cases, this age difference of more than 40 years in the heterosexual world occurs when the young woman might be under 20 and not 37. Then, silence reigns, but when this happens between two adult men in a homosexual relationship, they have very aggressive opinions.

Tenth anniversary

Klein's relationship with her boyfriend, Kevin Baker, became public in 2016, when the couple attended The Mint Luxury Conference in Mumbai together and, shortly thereafter, the American Theatre in New York, where they officially posed together for the first time. Baker was then a professional model who had been trying to make his way in the fashion world and also dedicated himself to pornographic cinema under a pseudonym while trying to succeed in his sector in the American capital of fashion.

At that time, Klein had been divorced for 10 years from his second wife, Kelly Rector (a.k.a. Kelly Klein by marriage), whom he had met while working for him as an assistant. They had married in 1986 in Rome and had been together for 20 years. Although he had already sold the company by then and had achieved a monumental fortune, there was no major public fight between them and the divorce was peaceful. At least from the outside.

Alongside the creator, Kelly became one of the greatest ambassadors of all time for her husband's brand's minimalism. In fact, it was also at that time that the company signed none other than Carolyn Bessette as public relations, which subsequently catapulted her to stardom, as everyone well knows today, after the series Love Story, focused on Bessette's relationship with John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. People who know the world of fashion in more detail often speak of Kelly's influence on Bessette in terms of fashion, turning her into the icon of minimalism that everyone remembers, applauds, and emulates today.

Father of a daughter

Previously, Calvin Klein had been married to Jayne Centre, a lifelong friend whom he met when they were two children in their native Bronx. With her, Klein became the icon that everyone knows today. He was married to her from 1964 to 1974. When they started their relationship, he was already studying at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology to found his company in 1968, which, before they separated, had already ventured into women's prêt-à-porter and had launched its successful denim line. With Centre, he had his only daughter, Marci Klein, 58, known for her work as a producer on the show Saturday Night Live, for which she has won several Emmys.

Klein, of Hungarian Jewish origin, never came out of the closet as gay or bisexual. Rumors had always existed around him – even in times when he was married – but the designer never wanted to give them more importance by talking about them in the media. However, over the years he has made some public statements about his sexual orientations. In fact, just when he divorced Kelly, he granted an interview to Vanity Fair in which he said he had "fulfilled many fantasies". "I have experienced sex with men and women. I have fallen in love with women, I have married women and I have started a family," he said in that interview.

Four years after that interview, Klein began to be seen publicly with model Nick Gruber, his first public homosexual partner. However, the relationship failed in 2012 after Gruber was arrested for an altercation involving assault and in which cocaine was found. The designer helped him to rehabilitate, but they did not continue together.

His most discreet relationship

After all this curriculum and having started very late to live their life freely, Calvin Klein began the relationship he still maintains with Kevin Baker. Perhaps with the lesson well learned from the special interest that his relationships arouse, he has decided that he will no longer talk about them or make any further gestures to the press. They are only seen together at public events and there is no more content than that. They do not grant interviews or expose themselves on social media. So much so that, when there are paparazzi, they circulate like two independent pedestrians so as not to give anything away to a public sphere that they feel has facilitated things for them so little.

Indeed, it is understandable. When he was in the closet (to the general public), there was no end to speculation about his private life, and when he made his sexual and affective orientations public, he did not find any warmth either. On the contrary, he has rather had to face new criticisms for any other reason each time he shows himself as he is. Why keep trying to live according to society, then? It is difficult to justify. Especially if you know that, on top of that, every gesture you make publicly will only serve to overshadow your true legacy, that of a fashion firm that will outlive you and for which, when it was sold, someone considered it opportune to pay around 700 million dollars. Sometimes, some celebrities are forgiven everything and others are asked for the sky. Perhaps we should consider who we do what with...