Songwriter to the Stars Diane Warren Addresses Her Sexuality, Why She Has Zero Interest in Love: 'Not for Me'

The woman who's written hits for Cher, Celine Dion, Aerosmith and others pulls back the curtain on her life in the new documentary 'Diane Warren: Relentless'

Diane Warren has written some of the biggest and best love songs to top the pop charts since the '80s: "If I Could Turn Back Time" by Cher. "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion. "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith.

But the woman who helped write pop radio's book on love and romance doesn't necessarily write from first-hand experience. Warren, 68, has been single for most of her adult life — and that's the way she wants to keep it. Her first (and only) love is music.

"I don't want to be in a relationship. It's not for me. It never was," she says in her new documentary, Diane Warren: Relentless, which premiered at the DOC NYC festival on Nov. 18 and will hit cinemas on Jan. 10, ahead of its streaming premiere Jan. 16 on Master Class.

"I don't think you have to be in love to write a great love song," she continues. "To me, it's like Method acting. When I'm writing these songs, I'm the character. I feel everything."

Related: Diane Warren Recalls Writing 'Say Don't Go' with Taylor Swift 10 Years Ago: 'It Was Worth the Wait'

In the documentary, the Grammy winner and 15-time Oscar nominee (she received an Honorary Academy Award in 2022) does admit to having had "one boyfriend" in the past, producer Guy Roche. He appears in the film and talks about meeting Warren way back when he was "fresh off the boat from Tahiti." She heard he was doing demos for other songwriters and enlisted him to do a demo with her.

"We were the closest for while, working and producing her demos and later producing records with her," he says.

Diane Warren: Relentless also features interviews with family members, lifelong friends and some of the stars who have benefitted from her songwriting prowess, including Cher, Toni Braxton, Gloria Estefan and LeAnn Rimes, who recorded Warren's song "How Do I Live."

Legendary music industry mogul and Arista Records founder Clive Davis, who has had many of his artists record Warren's songs over the years, weighs in on her uncanny ability to write from inexperience. "She knows the power of love, she knows the heartbreak of love, she knows all the emotional qualities surrounding it, but it's fantasy, you know, because to my knowledge, she's never really been in love," he says in the doc.

In addition to her indefinitely single status, the film touches on Warren's rebellious teenage years (she spent time in juvenile detention after her parents turned her in for smoking pot), her hardscrabble rise to the top of the pop songwriting game (she had to beg to get Cher to record "If I Could Turn Back Time") and her sexual orientation, which has been the subject of speculation.

"I'm straight; everybody thinks I'm gay," she says matter-of-factly in the doc. "But I don't care what I am. Whatever. It doesn't matter."

In the end, she insists, it's all about her songs. "I really put blinders on... my work, my work, my work," she says. "Any time something gets in the way, I just kind of block it out."

Diane Warren: Relentless is available to stream on the DOC NYC website through Dec. 1. Tickets can be purchased here. It will hit cinemas on Jan. 10, ahead of its Jan. 16 streaming premiere on Master Class.