Financial guru Suze Orman has been out publicly for several years now but she acknowledges that she has consciously avoided talking much about her personal life in a professional setting.

'I didn’t want people’s minds to be troubled by the fact that — you know, that I’m gay and I’ve been with [her wife] KT now for 11 years,' Orman said in a conference call with reporters this week. 'So I always wanted to be known as the Money Lady, not, you know, the Money Lesbian.'

But Orman knows things might get more personal with her new show, America's Money Class with Suze Orman, which debuts on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on Jan. 9. That's because, unlike on her long-running CNBC show, Orman will be interacting with a studio audience during the course of the six-part series.

'I don’t make a habit of talking about it only because the truth of the matter is people whenever they get on the phone with me they don’t ask me about it. They ask me about money,' she said. 'But if they ask me about it I’d be more than open to talk about it.

On the OWN show, Orman will provide information and tools to help viewers get on their feet and take the steps to get their money in control. She will also give viewers a chance to win up to $50,000 when they take her final exam at the end of the finale episode.