You might be surprised to learn the extraordinary lengths some famous people went to try to hide their relationships from the public, and how desperately they wanted to keep their romances from becoming public knowledge.
The daughter Hollywood couldn’t know
In 1935, Loretta Young gave birth to the daughter of actor Clark Gable. But rather than openly admit it, she had to pretend the baby was adopted, as the truth could’ve ruined Young’s career. The pair met while working together on The Call of the Wild. But Gable was married.
Young secretly gave birth to Judy Lewis and hid the truth from everyone, even from Judy herself. Judy didn’t know who her real father was until she was an adult. Young admitted the truth in private, although it only became public knowledge once she died in 2000.
The photographs they couldn’t take
Actor Rock Hudson had to be extremely careful about who took photographs of him during the 1960s. He was a Hollywood heartthrob, yet he was secretly gay and dating stockbroker Lee Garlington. Neither man wanted the truth to come out, especially not Hudson. It would’ve ended his acting career entirely.
The pair were unable to have a normal photograph taken together because they were that secretive. However, they did manage to enjoy a vacation together in Mexico in 1963 and relax a little. Hudson said Garlington was his true love. But very few people knew about their romance.
The romance behind nine movies
It’s no surprise that Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy ended up together. They’d been in nine movies together, after all, and they began secretly dating after their first movie in 1942. The relationship continued until Tracy died in 1967.
They couldn’t go public with the relationship, however, as Tracy was already married to Louise Treadwell. He refused to get divorced because he was Catholic. The pair kept separate homes and avoided appearing publicly as a couple, with Hepburn refusing to discuss their relationship openly until after he died. She wanted to respect his wife.
The private life of a congresswoman
You might recognize Barbara Jordan for her time as a congresswoman during the 1970s. She represented Texas in the House of Representatives, and she was often described as a powerful voice for civil rights. Jordan’s love life, however, was kept private throughout her life.
Jordan met Earl during a camping trip in the late 1960s, and the pair began dating shortly after. She and Nancy Earl were together for more than two decades, and they even shared a home in Austin, Texas. Earl was also her caregiver in her later years, as Jordan suffered from multiple sclerosis.
The intern who kept a president’s secret
Any 19-year-old would probably love to go on a summer internship at the White House, and Mimi Beardsley did exactly that. But her time there was rather different from what most interns might expect. She began working there in 1962 and, shortly after, she began a secret relationship with President John F. Kennedy.
He was married to Jacqueline Kennedy at the time. They stayed together until shortly before Kennedy was assassinated, though it stayed a secret for many years. Beardsley later married and became Mimi Alford. Her children had no idea about the affair either. Then, in 2003, a biography about Kennedy revealed the relationship to the public.
The letters sealed until 2037
Even to this day, there are some parts of James Baldwin’s love life that are still hidden. Yes, really. The American author met Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger in Paris in 1949, and the two men began a relationship together. The romance itself only lasted a brief time.
Even so, Baldwin apparently said Happersberger was the great love of his life and dedicated his 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room to him. Yet Baldwin didn’t want the whole world knowing. The New York Public Library holds his personal correspondence with Happersberger, and it remains restricted until 2037.
A love story between the pages
Virginia Woolf was open about her feelings towards Vita Sackville-West in the only way that she knew how. She put them in her novel. In the 1920s, Woolf met West, and the pair became romantically involved, even though they were both already married to other people.
They wrote plenty of affectionate letters to each other. Then, in 1928, Woolf published a novel inspired by Sackville-West called Orlando, and she even included photographs of Vita in the book. Their romance eventually ended and stayed a secret. But the women remained friends afterward.
The man behind the love songs
For a man who wrote so many romantic songs, it’s no surprise that Cole Porter’s own love life was complicated. He was famous for his Broadway compositions, and he married Linda Lee Thomas in 1919. Porter had numerous romantic relationships with men, however.
It was only a secret to the public since his wife knew about his sexuality, and she asked him to keep the public appearance of a regular marriage. Porter became involved with a man named Ed Tauch and wrote songs about him, including ‘Easy to Love.’ Tauch died in 1954.
The secret passenger in the car
Black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. had a relationship so secretive that he had to hide himself to see his partner. She was the white Hollywood actress Kim Novak, and their relationship was under a lot of pressure. Interracial relationships were still taboo in many parts of America.
Even Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn wasn’t happy about their relationship. He allegedly threatened Davis, and the couple had to meet secretly. But it all got too much. In January 1958, Davis married singer Loray White, apparently as a way to hide the truth.
The birthday painting with a message
Painter Frida Kahlo and former Soviet Union leader Leon Trotsky made for quite an unusual couple. The pair had a fleeting romance that was kept secret for many reasons, including the fact that both of them were married to other people.
Still, in November 1937, Kahlo gave Trotsky a self-portrait to remember her by. It showed her holding flowers and had a handwritten dedication expressing her affection for him. Trotsky kept the painting in his study.
The letters nobody could open
Actress Greta Garbo might’ve been famously private, but writer Mercedes de Acosta knew an awful lot about her. They began a relationship in 1931, and de Acosta claimed that the two of them became lovers. Not all historians agree, though.
Regardless, the pair kept their relationship private, and de Acosta donated Garbo’s letters to Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum. They couldn’t open them until ten years after both women had died, and that didn’t happen until April 2000.
The eighteen months left out
May Pang and John Lennon’s relationship only lasted eighteen months, but Pang has argued that it was largely written out of his story. The fact that Pang was the musician’s assistant at the time didn’t help. The two started dating in 1973 while he was separated from Yoko Ono.
They spent time together in Los Angeles and New York, with Pang even helping Lennon reconnect with his estranged son Julian. The full details came out in 2023, when Pang told her side of the story in the documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story.
The love letters inside the archives
There was a whole part of Pauli Murray’s love life that was hidden away in Harvard University boxes for decades. Murray was an important civil rights lawyer, and during the 1950s, she met Irene Barlow, nicknamed Renee, while working at a New York law firm.
They had a romantic relationship that Murray decided to keep completely private. It was only much later that researchers found love letters between the women, containing private nicknames and playful messages. These are now at the Harvard University Library.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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