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00:00Didn't you two meet while she was interviewing you for what?
00:02That's right, for Interview Magazine and Orwell's Magazine.
00:07Yeah, was it one of those things where you were...
00:10I had always had a crush on Tony ever since.
00:12One by one, they married the men every woman dreamed of,
00:16powerful, the perfect husbands, or so the world believed.
00:22Then everything fell apart.
00:25One Hollywood icon walked into a room
00:27and witnessed something she could never unsee.
00:31Another bride remained married for more than four decades
00:34without ever experiencing the marriage she thought she had.
00:39For years, these women blamed themselves,
00:42never suspecting that the truth had been hidden from them all along.
00:47Some confessions came years after the marriages ended.
00:50Others surfaced only after death.
00:53And a few remain surrounded by controversy even today.
00:57These are the shocking stories of 11 famous women
01:01who never suspected their husbands were gay.
01:04And it all begins with Hollywood's greatest legend, Judy Garland.
01:10Judy Garland
01:12Judy Garland was already one of the brightest stars inside Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
01:17when Garland married director Vincente Minnelli in 1945.
01:23Minnelli had just finished directing Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis,
01:27a film that turned Garland into an even bigger name across the country.
01:31Behind the cameras, the studio controlled almost everything about the daily life of the young star,
01:38from work hours to constant pressure around image and weight.
01:41A traditional Hollywood marriage fit perfectly into that plan.
01:46And executives at the studio strongly supported the match between Garland and Minnelli.
01:52What almost nobody outside the studio walls knew
01:55was that Minnelli had lived an open lifestyle with other men
01:59during years spent in the New York theater scene.
02:02Hollywood in the 1940s demanded a very different public story.
02:07So the wedding photographs told a version of events that hid the full truth.
02:13The marriage lasted six years and produced a daughter,
02:17future star Liza Minnelli, before ending in 1951.
02:23Biographers later wrote that Minnelli carried on relationships with men throughout the marriage,
02:28leaving Garland to process the collapse of a partnership built more on image than on reality.
02:34Minnelli went on to direct celebrated films such as An American in Paris and Gigi,
02:41eventually winning a Best Director Oscar,
02:44while the personal side of the marriage stayed a quiet subject for years afterward.
02:49A 20-year age gap between the two
02:52only added to how carefully the studio managed the public story from the very beginning.
02:58Garland would not escape the pattern a second time.
03:01A later husband, performer Mark Heron, also turned out to be gay
03:06and eventually left the marriage for another man.
03:10The same story kept repeating for one of the most talented performers in movie history.
03:15And next comes an actress whose marriage ended after less than one year.
03:21Angela Lansbury
03:22At only 19 years old, Angela Lansbury married fellow actor Richard Cromwell in 1945,
03:29just one year after Lansbury earned an Academy Award nomination for a debut role in Gaslight.
03:36Cromwell was 35 years old, well-connected, and seen around town with old Hollywood royalties such as Joan Crawford.
03:45To a teenager brand new to the industry,
03:49Cromwell represented glamour, sophistication, and safety inside an overwhelming new world.
03:57Lansbury later admitted that the thought of marrying a gay man
04:01never once crossed a young and inexperienced mind.
04:05Less than one year into the marriage,
04:07Cromwell packed up and left behind a short note,
04:11one that simply explained the marriage could not continue.
04:16There was no warning, no argument,
04:18and no explanation beyond those few lines.
04:22Lansbury never spoke publicly against Cromwell,
04:26choosing instead to protect Cromwell's privacy for decades.
04:30The two remained friends until the death of Cromwell from cancer in 1960.
04:37Lansbury went on to marry actor Peter Shaw in 1949,
04:42a marriage that lasted more than 50 years,
04:45until the death of Shaw in 2003.
04:48Decades later, Lansbury became a household name
04:51playing a mystery writer on Murder, She Wrote,
04:54a role that made a painful first marriage feel like a distant memory
04:59from a completely different lifetime.
05:02The next story trades quiet heartbreak for a business deal dressed up as a wedding
05:08involving one of the most famous leading men in Hollywood history.
05:12Phyllis Gates
05:13Rock Hudson and Secretary Phyllis Gates
05:17married inside a Santa Barbara hotel in November of 1955,
05:22only days after being introduced by powerful talent agent Henry Wilson.
05:28Wilson represented Hudson and needed to silence growing rumors
05:33before a gossip magazine could publish the full story.
05:37Gates worked as the secretary for Wilson,
05:40which means Gates almost certainly understood far more about the arrangement
05:44than the public wedding announcement ever suggested.
05:48For decades afterward, historians have argued about how much Gates truly knew
05:53going into the marriage.
05:54In a memoir released after Hudson passed away,
05:58Gates insisted on total love and complete surprise
06:02upon learning the truth about a husband who preferred men.
06:06Other biographers, including author Robert Hoffler,
06:10wrote that friends of Hudson considered the marriage
06:13nothing more than a business partnership
06:15between two people fully aware of the plan.
06:18The marriage lasted only three years before ending in a divorce,
06:23built on legal threats and hidden evidence.
06:27According to reports from the time,
06:30Hudson eventually agreed to hand over the family home
06:33along with years of weekly payments,
06:36once faced with recorded proof of the truth.
06:40Hudson went on to protect a carefully built image
06:43for another three decades
06:45before dying from complications connected to AIDS in 1985.
06:50Gates carried public suspicion and quiet questions
06:54for the rest of a long life passing away in 2006.
06:59Barry Berenson
07:00Fashion photographer, Barry Berenson met actor Anthony Perkins
07:05at a party in 1972
07:07and married the Psycho star only one year later,
07:11three months pregnant with the first of two sons.
07:15Perkins had spent years quietly involved with other men,
07:19including a well-known relationship with actor Tab Hunter.
07:23Berenson grew up connected and socially aware
07:26inside the liberated art scene of New York City,
07:29which makes total ignorance of the rumors
07:32around a new husband highly unlikely,
07:34according to several biographers.
07:37Even so, friends of the couple
07:39described a marriage built on real affection
07:41and a shared determination to build a stable family life.
07:46The arrangement held together for nearly two decades
07:49until 1990,
07:51when Perkins learned through a tabloid report
07:53that a blood test had confirmed HIV.
07:56Perkins kept the diagnosis secret
07:59from almost everyone except Berenson,
08:01who carried the weight of that secret
08:03for two full years
08:04until Perkins passed away in 1992.
08:09Before passing away,
08:11Perkins spoke publicly about facing the illness
08:14with compassion rather than shame,
08:17leaving behind two sons
08:18who later became a director
08:20and a musician in their own right.
08:23Nine years after losing a husband
08:25to complications from AIDS,
08:27Berenson boarded a flight home
08:29from a vacation on Cape Cod.
08:32That flight was American Airlines Flight 11,
08:35and Berenson died on September 11, 2001,
08:40exactly one day
08:41before the ninth anniversary
08:43of the death of Perkins.
08:45One woman carried two of the most devastating losses
08:49tied to a single decade of American history.
08:53Next comes a marriage that lasted 33 years
08:57without ever becoming
08:59what either partner expected on the wedding day.
09:03Elsa Lanchester
09:04British actors Elsa Lanchester and Charles Lawton
09:08married in 1929
09:10and quickly became known as an eccentric,
09:13brilliant pair working together across stage and screen.
09:16Not long into the marriage,
09:18Lawton admitted an exclusive attraction to men,
09:21a confession that could have meant
09:23prison time back in England
09:24and instant career ruin in America.
09:28Lanchester faced a brutal choice
09:30between ending the marriage publicly
09:32or quietly redesigning an entire future.
09:35Lanchester chose to stay,
09:38and the marriage continued for 33 years,
09:41built around artistic partnership
09:43rather than romance.
09:45The two never separated,
09:48appearing together in 10 different films
09:50while maintaining careful boundaries
09:52that kept the truth hidden
09:54from studio bosses and the press.
09:57Lanchester later wrote in an autobiography
09:59that childlessness in the marriage
10:02came directly from the sexuality of Lawton,
10:05though some friends of the couple argued
10:07that other reasons explained the choice.
10:10Lawton built a legendary career
10:12playing towering figures such as Henry VIII
10:14and the Hunchback of Notre Dame,
10:16while the marriage behind the scenes
10:19stayed carefully guarded from public view
10:21for the full 33 years.
10:24The arrangement lasted until Lawton passed away in 1962.
10:29Lanchester continued acting for decades afterward,
10:32including memorable roles in Disney films
10:35such as Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
10:39But if you think this story was unbelievable,
10:44wait until you hear about the Hollywood designer
10:46behind Dorothy's iconic ruby slippers
10:48and the wife whose own hidden truth
10:51made their marriage even more complicated.
10:55Janet Gaynor
10:56Janet Gaynor became the first woman ever
10:59to win an Academy Award for Best Actress,
11:02and in 1939 married MGM costume designer
11:06Gilbert Adrian,
11:07the man behind the ruby slippers
11:09in The Wizard of Oz
11:10and gowns worn by Greta Garbo.
11:13Inside the tight circles of Hollywood,
11:16the sexuality of Adrian was already an open secret.
11:20Unlike many women on this list,
11:22Gaynor was already a major industry veteran
11:24by the time of the wedding,
11:26which makes the marriage look far less like deception
11:29and far more like a strategic partnership.
11:33Persistent rumors about a close, lifelong bond
11:36between Gaynor and singer Mary Martin
11:38suggest Gaynor may have needed
11:40a respectable public shield
11:42just as much as Adrian did.
11:44Years earlier, in 1929,
11:47Gaynor had already made history
11:49by becoming the only performer ever
11:51to win an Academy Award
11:53covering three separate films in a single year.
11:57A record that still stands to this day.
12:00The couple had one son together,
12:03entertained often,
12:04and kept a united public front for two decades
12:07until Adrian passed away from a heart attack in 1959.
12:13Gaynor remarried producer Paul Gregory
12:15five years later,
12:17and the two friendly couples
12:18continued spending time together
12:20across California and Brazil.
12:22In September of 1982,
12:24a van ran a red light in San Francisco
12:27and crashed into a taxi
12:29carrying Gaynor and her best friend Mary Martin.
12:33Gaynor suffered 11 broken ribs
12:36along with severe internal injuries
12:38and never fully recovered
12:40before passing away two years later.
12:43Next comes a beloved television mother
12:46whose own 25-year marriage collapsed
12:49after a confession nobody saw coming.
12:51Charlotte Ray
12:54Long before becoming a beloved television mother
12:57on the facts of life,
12:59Charlotte Ray built a quiet,
13:01ordinary-seeming marriage
13:03with composer John Strauss
13:05that lasted 25 years.
13:08The couple raised two sons together
13:10and worked side-by-side
13:12in the entertainment industry for decades.
13:15Shortly after moving into a new home in Los Angeles,
13:18Strauss confessed both a gay identity
13:21and a history of infidelity,
13:23a revelation that shattered
13:25the confidence of Ray almost instantly.
13:28Ray later described feeling deep shame,
13:31calling the confession proof
13:33that Ray somehow deserved less love
13:35and respect as a wife.
13:37Unlike many stories on this list,
13:40there was no studio conspiracy
13:42or business arrangement
13:44behind the marriage of Ray and Strauss.
13:46This was two decades of genuine partnership
13:49followed by a sudden and painful reveal
13:52with no warning at all.
13:55The couple divorced in the middle of the 1970s,
13:58yet remained close friends
14:00for the rest of Strauss' life,
14:02who later spent over 20 years
14:04with a partner named Lionel Friedman.
14:07One of the two sons
14:08even marched alongside Strauss
14:11in a pride parade years afterward,
14:13a moment described as a meaningful gift
14:16between father and son.
14:18Ray chose never to remarry,
14:21focusing instead on a long career
14:23that eventually led to the iconic role
14:25of Mrs. Garrett,
14:26first on different strokes
14:28and later on the spin-off
14:29that made Ray a household name
14:31for an entire generation of viewers.
14:34Up next,
14:35a marriage that survived on paper
14:37for 41 years,
14:39while turning into one of the most shocking
14:41divorce filings in show business history.
14:43Carol Channing
14:45Broadway Legend
14:46Carol Channing filed for divorce
14:48from her husband and manager,
14:50Charles Lowe,
14:52at 77 years old,
14:54ending a marriage
14:54that had lasted 41 years.
14:58Lowe controlled the finances,
15:00the schedule,
15:01and nearly every part
15:02of the business life of Channing,
15:04allowing the star to focus entirely
15:07on a legendary stage career
15:08built around the musical
15:10Hello, Dolly!
15:11Court filings revealed a marriage
15:14that was physically empty
15:15for decades,
15:16with Channing claiming intimacy
15:19occurred only once or twice
15:21near the very beginning
15:22of the relationship.
15:24For years,
15:25Channing accepted the explanation
15:27that constant work
15:28and exhaustion
15:29explained the distance at home.
15:32The truth came out
15:33only after health problems
15:35and strange gaps
15:36in personal finances
15:37led Channing to dig deeper.
15:39According to the divorce filings,
15:42Lowe had spent large sums of money
15:44connected to a personal relationship
15:46with photographer Wallace Sewell,
15:48leaving Channing to face
15:49the collapse of both a marriage
15:51and a financial safety net
15:53at the same time.
15:55Lowe had built an earlier career
15:57producing television classics,
15:59such as the George Burns
16:00and Gracie Allen show,
16:02before turning full attention
16:04toward managing the career
16:05of Channing after 1956.
16:07The case became
16:09one of the most talked-about
16:11celebrity divorces of the era,
16:13showing how completely
16:15a trusted manager
16:16could blur the line
16:17between business partner
16:19and husband.
16:21Channing eventually found happiness again,
16:23marrying a childhood sweetheart
16:25named Harry Colligion in 2003.
16:29The next story leaves Hollywood
16:31completely behind
16:32for the palace grounds
16:33of the British royal family.
16:35Princess Margaret
16:38Over 300 million people
16:40watched the wedding
16:41of Princess Margaret
16:42to photographer
16:43Antony Armstrong Jones
16:45in 1960,
16:47a moment broadcast
16:49around the world
16:50as the first televised
16:52royal wedding in history.
16:54The marriage arrived
16:56shortly after Margaret
16:57was forbidden from marrying
16:59a divorced war hero
17:00named Peter Townsend,
17:02giving the royal family
17:04a badly needed
17:05feel-good headline.
17:07Armstrong Jones
17:08moved inside a bohemian,
17:10sexually fluid world
17:11in London
17:12that a sheltered princess
17:13could barely comprehend,
17:15and biographers
17:16now widely describe
17:17Armstrong Jones
17:18as bisexual.
17:20Rumors of relationships
17:21with both men and women
17:22followed the marriage
17:23for years,
17:24though the full truth
17:25only became clear
17:26long after the wedding
17:28took place.
17:28As tension grew,
17:31Armstrong Jones
17:32reportedly left
17:33cruel, handwritten notes
17:34for Margaret
17:35to discover
17:36tucked inside books,
17:37along with long lists
17:39detailing complaints
17:40about the marriage.
17:42Unlike an actress
17:43with the freedom
17:44to quietly divorce,
17:46Margaret carried
17:47public royal duties
17:48throughout the entire
17:49collapse of the relationship.
17:51The couple raised
17:52two children together,
17:54Viscount Lindley
17:55and Lady Sarah,
17:56even as the marriage
17:57continued falling apart
17:59behind palace doors.
18:01The marriage officially
18:02ended in 1978,
18:04making Margaret
18:05and Armstrong Jones
18:07the first senior royals
18:08to divorce
18:09since the era
18:10of Henry VIII.
18:12If you think
18:13you've heard it all,
18:14the next story
18:15belongs to a comedian
18:16who devoted his life
18:18to entertaining troops
18:19while hiding
18:19a painful truth
18:20of his own.
18:21Martha Ray
18:22For decades,
18:24Martha Ray
18:25entertained American troops
18:26across several wars,
18:28earning the nickname
18:29Colonel Maggie,
18:31along with deep respect
18:32from generations
18:33of soldiers.
18:34By the age of 75,
18:37years of strokes
18:38and declining health
18:39had left Ray
18:40using a wheelchair.
18:42In 1991,
18:44only three weeks
18:45after meeting
18:45a bisexual performer
18:47named Mark Harris,
18:48Ray married
18:49the 42-year-old
18:50in Las Vegas.
18:51The 33-year age gap
18:53immediately drew criticism
18:55from family members
18:56and heavy coverage
18:57from tabloids
18:58across the country.
19:00Family members
19:01later fought in court,
19:03arguing that
19:04declining memory
19:04and physical fragility
19:06left Ray unable
19:07to fully understand
19:08the situation
19:09surrounding a new husband.
19:12Harris provided
19:13constant company
19:14during a lonely
19:15final chapter of life,
19:17regardless of the
19:18true motivation
19:19behind the relationship.
19:21This was the seventh
19:22marriage for a performer
19:23once known simply as
19:25the Big Mouth,
19:26a nickname earned
19:28through decades
19:29of larger-than-life
19:30comedy on stage,
19:32film,
19:32and television screens
19:34across America.
19:36The marriage
19:36lasted three years
19:38until the death
19:39of Ray in 1994.
19:41Harris received
19:43the bulk of an estate
19:44valued at more
19:45than $2 million,
19:45while the daughter
19:47of Ray received
19:48far less,
19:49leading to lasting
19:50bitterness within
19:51the family
19:52for years afterward.
19:54Amanda Blake
19:55For 19 years,
19:57Amanda Blake
19:57played the sharp,
19:58independent Miss Kitty
20:00on the television
20:01Western Gunsmoke,
20:02becoming one of the
20:03most recognized faces
20:04on American television.
20:07In 1984,
20:09Blake married
20:09Texas City Councilman
20:11Mark Spaeth,
20:12hoping for stability
20:13after stepping away
20:15from a demanding
20:15acting career.
20:17Spaeth kept
20:18a private life
20:19hidden behind
20:19a respectable
20:20political image.
20:22Since openly
20:23identifying as
20:24gay or bisexual
20:25in 1980s,
20:27Texas politics
20:28could destroy
20:29a career instantly.
20:32Blake had no idea
20:34about the true
20:35situation
20:36when walking
20:37into the marriage.
20:39Less than one year
20:40later,
20:41Spaeth filed for divorce
20:42and passed away
20:43shortly afterward
20:44from complications
20:46connected to AIDS.
20:48At the time,
20:49the disease carried
20:50enormous stigma,
20:52and few people
20:53understood
20:53how the virus
20:55could spread
20:55between partners.
20:57Blake later learned
20:58a devastating truth.
21:00The same illness
21:01had spread to Blake
21:02during the brief marriage,
21:04though friends
21:05insisted Blake
21:06never used substances
21:07and never lived
21:08a reckless lifestyle.
21:10Blake passed away
21:12five years later
21:13at 60 years old,
21:14with a doctor
21:15eventually confirming
21:16AIDS as the true
21:18cause of death
21:18after early reports
21:20mistakenly blamed cancer.
21:22Outside of acting,
21:24Blake spent years
21:25running one of the
21:26earliest successful
21:27cheetah breeding
21:28programs in the country,
21:30a passion project
21:31that continued
21:32right up until health
21:33made it impossible
21:35to carry on.
21:36The story of Blake
21:37shows the harshest
21:39possible cost
21:40of an era
21:40that forced
21:41so many men
21:42to hide the truth,
21:44leaving the women
21:44beside them
21:45to pay a price
21:46nobody ever
21:47warned them about.
21:48Eleven marriages,
21:50eleven women,
21:51and eleven
21:52completely different ways
21:53that Hollywood
21:54and royal history
21:55hid the truth
21:56behind a wedding ring.
21:58Some women
21:59knew everything.
22:00Some knew
22:01nothing at all.
22:02Every single one
22:03paid a price
22:04that history
22:05rarely explains in full.
22:06which story
22:08shocked you the most?
22:10Drop a comment
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22:14for more true stories
22:16from inside
22:16the most guarded secrets
22:18in entertainment history.
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