Katharine Hepburn

[chameleon]

The old thread appears to have been lost, so...

From the NY Daily News: Katharine and Spencer were gay!

The epic romance of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy was a fable cultivated by Hepburn to hide their bisexuality, according to an exhaustive new biography of the actress.
Film historian William J. Mann writes in "Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn," that the two "sexually complicated" screen legends had an enduring companionship but were only briefly passionate and never lived together intimately.

[snip]

Hepburn's notorious relationship with American Express heiress Laura Harding wasn't "lesbian," but it certainly was sexual, Mann believes. He writes: "Hepburn admitted as much to friends like James Prideaux, cutting him off with a shrill 'Of course!' when he asked ... as if the subject were simply too obvious and boring to belabor."

I'm not sure I believe it. It's a bit too lurid...Katharine's devotion to Tracy may have been masochistic and not a little strange considering her innate strength as a person, but I doubt it was all just a giant cover-up for lesbianism or bisexuality.

[Deleted]

Wouldn't Tracy's wife be beard enough, especially in those days? I kinda doubt that they were gay.

[abigail]

I think they had a secret love child together ... her name is Cynthia McFadden. She is a news commentator . She was also the sole heir and executor of Katherines estate .

She couldn't have been Hepburns lover . Cynthia McFadden named her son Spencer Graham McFadden and she was adopted. She was born in Maine on May 27, 1956.

[Sunnyhorse]

Rumor also had it that McFadden was Hepburn's lover.

Is it just me, or was Katharine Hepburn a really unpleasant person? I used to think she was pretty cool, but now I'm not so sure.

[mrpancake]

I don't know much about her, but whenever I've read a quote from her or seen anything about her, she struck me as one of the most unpleasant people to ever walk this earth. I know many feel differently. I mean, she had a lot of cool aspects about her, but I think she also had a pretty strong bitchy side.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I can tell you that if I had known her, I probably wouldn't have liked her.

[huntergrayson]

And yet Bette Davis mostly gets a free ride here for being "tough" or whatever.

FWIW, I think both are amazing women who definitely have their unpleasant moments but could nonetheless *destroy* the current crop of wannabes in a millisecond.

Meanwhile, I was more intrigued by the tidbit about the "handsome young bucks, just home from the war" who for $20 were "happy to wash their hands (or not) and take a trip with a client to the back room." They truly were the Greatest Generation.

[Sunnyhorse]

abigail said:

I think they had a secret love child together ... her name is Cynthia McFadden. She is a news commentator . She was also the sole heir and executor of Katherines estate .

She couldn't have been Hepburns lover . Cynthia McFadden named her son Spencer Graham McFadden and she was adopted. She was born in Maine on May 27, 1956.

I have no clue as to whether she was Hepburn's lover, but I'm not sure how any of that precludes the possibility.

[Brookie]

You can Google Cynthia McFadden for yourself. She is well credentialed. She looks absolutely nothing like Tracy or Hepburn, and she was the executrix of Hepburn's will. I couldn't locate anything about her being the sole heir of the will.

[Deleted]

Wasn't McFadden one of Liza Minelli's 800 bridesmaids in her wedding to David Gest?