Jodie Foster ended years of rampant media speculation when she casually came out of the closet while accepting her Cecil B. Demille award at the Golden Globes Sunday night.

After being introduced by Robert Downey Jr., Foster coyly said, "While Im here being all confessional, I just have the sudden urge to say something Ive never been able to air in public. A declaration that Im a little nervous about. Not quite as nervous as my publicist, huh, Jennifer? But uh, you know, Im just going to put it out there. Loud and proud. Im going to need your support. I am -- single!"

She then took a more serious turn, noting, "I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the Stone Age. In those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends, and family, coworkers and then gradually, proudly, to everyone who knew her."

Throughout her occasionally long-winded yet stirring speech, Foster, 50, went on to speak about privacy and its general absence in Hollywood -- a luxury that, to her, seems like a distant past. She took more than a few digs at oversharing, joking she was "not Honey Boo Boo" before adding, "If you had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you, too, would value privacy above all else."

Foster also thanked her ex-partner and co-parent, Cydney Bernard, and said she would only take projects that challenged her creatively -- which left a number of publications such as the Los Angeles Times to speculate whether or not the Oscar-winning actress was also announcing her retirement.

But as she clarified backstage for the Associated Press : "I could never stop acting. You'd have to drag me behind a team of horses. I'd like to be directing tomorrow. I'm more into it than I have ever been."

She added that she "wanted to say what's most in my heart."

In December 2007 Foster cracked the closet door open when she thanked her "beautiful Cydney" at during an acceptance speech for the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at the 16th annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast, but last night's Golden Globe speech left no doubt about the actress's sexuality.

Foster now joins celebrities like Matt Bomer , Sam Champion and Anderson Cooper who've publicly addressed their sexuality in low-key, almost matter-of-fact ways.