# Who are some famous gays/bisexuals who have married members of the opposite sex? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513 "2005-05-12T04:46:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/61 "2005-05-14T21:58:15Z")
Forgot to add two famous black entertainers who married men during their long lives but later lived completely openly as lesbians: [Alberta Hunter](http://www.redhotjazz.com/hunter.html)- an interesting broad on a number of levels, not the least of which was that she completely left show business while still getting big bookings (she became a nurse at 59 and by lying about her age [to avoid mandatory retirement at 65] she worked in hospitals until she was 80]), then pulled off a comeback at the age of _82_ and emerged bigger than ever. She married when she was young but the love of her life was Lottie Taylor with whom she lived for many years. [Jackie “Moms” Mabley](http://www.mp3.com/moms-mabley/artists/81274/biography.html) (born Loretta Aiken)- the mother of two children before she was 15 (both illegitimate and probably conceived in rape) she later married but never lived with her husband. Her gayness was an open secret and as an old woman she sometimes even incorporated it into her act when she wasn’t being filmed or recorded. ([Some of her early material](http://www.laugh.com/main_pages/comicpage.asp?cid=29)- my favorite is the cuckoo clock story.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/62 "2005-05-14T22:40:39Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Vita Sackville-West Vita Sackville-West definitely lays claim to the title of British Gardening Authority With the Most Interesting Love Life. Not that there’s a terribly tight race in that field, but hey… ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/63 "2005-05-14T23:07:12Z")
[Mark Harris](http://www.akamarkharris.com/april/larry.html), who prefers the label bisexual (as opposed to gold digging queen) was married to [Martha Raye](http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/r/Martha%20Raye/married%20Mark%20Harris.JPG) for the last few years of her life ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/64 "2005-05-15T05:15:00Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > [Mark Harris](http://www.akamarkharris.com/april/larry.html), who prefers the label bisexual (as opposed to gold digging queen) was married to [Martha Raye](http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/r/Martha%20Raye/married%20Mark%20Harris.JPG) for the last few years of her life Hey, just because you don’t get turned on by alcoholic chain-smoking wheelchair-bound stroke victims who are twice your age doesn’t mean that some people don’t. It could have been true love and not the fact she was a millionaire (and it’s possible O.J. really didn’t remember where he got that cut on his hand). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/65 "2005-05-15T17:14:08Z")
> [@liirogue](#): > > **Sampiro** , I have had two American history professors completely dismiss the idea that Eleanor R. was gay. They argued that the letters themselves can’t really be used as evidence - everyone back then wrote in a similar style. > > They had other arguments, but I can’t recall them. There was a book published a few years ago that claimed to “prove” that she was a lesbian, but both professors knocked it pretty damn hard. > > AFAIK, the professors have never met (graduated from different states and currently work at different colleges), and both gave the strong impression that the historical community dismisses the rumors as rubbish. If the letters had been written in say, 1904, or whatever, and by an overly emotional, very sentimental personthen MAYBE you could argue about style. But not in 1934, by someone as no-nonsense as Eleanor Roosevelt. BTW, was she also rumored to have had an affair with a member of FDR’s cabinet, or am I remembering wrong? Back to the topic-did anyone mention poet Adrienne Rich yet? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/66 "2005-05-15T18:18:54Z")
Oh, and “Miss Jane Hathaway”, Nancy Kulp. She was married for what she described as “off and on for about ten years”, but was openly gay by the time she died. (Her co-star Buddy Ebsen was so conservative and homophobic than in his only [novel](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1588201872/qid=1116181373/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-1597196-4283930?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) the main character pukes after seeing two men kiss; he also did ads for her Republican opponent when Nancy ran for Congress in Pennsylvania {\*Nancy baby I love ya, but you’re too liberal for me… so I’m supporting \_\_\_\_" [even though as a resident of California he couldn’t vote for either one], causing a major and understandable falling out.) Dick Sargent said in an interview that he and Sheila Kuehl (of Dobie Gillis fame) considered getting married in the early 1960s to be each others beards, but never did. Agnes Moorehead was married for a while and had a son but by the end of her life her lesbianism was an open secret. (Debbie Reynolds’ son Todd Fisher claims that Debbie and Agnes were an item, though Debbie, who admits they were the best of friends, has never confirmed the romantic part of the relationship.) ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/67 "2005-05-15T19:36:57Z")
> [@plnnr](#): > > HA! > > He wasn’t officially married to Mary _Austin_ . Mary Astor was an actress who starred in “The Maltese Falcon,” among other things. Wait a minute, was he officially married to Mary Astor or not? ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/68 "2005-05-15T20:22:14Z")
> [@Oy!](#): > > I find the Wikipedia article to be suspect, simply because they define Richard the Third as the club-footed, hunch-backed king. Hey, if you think Wikipedia is wrong, fix it. Or, as those of us who are active on Wikipedia say, {{sofixit}}. That said, the article currently states that allegations of his hunchbackedness are “likely complete fabrications”. You may have been looking at since-fixed vandalism. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/69 "2005-05-15T20:24:17Z")
> [@Bill Door](#): > > Wait a minute, was he officially married to Mary Astor or not? No, I watched a biography last night on him. They had a recording of him calling her his common law wife. For what its worth, his friends at the time said he was never much interested in women, but Marry was different, he really loved her. She said he came out to her about being gay when they had know each other for nine years and had been living together for years. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513/70 "2005-05-25T04:08:04Z")
Freddie Mercury lived with Mary _Austin_, not the actress [Mary Astor](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000802/), who was old enough to be his grandmother. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-gays-bisexuals-who-have-married-members-of-the-opposite-sex/303513.md?page=3)