People Are Showering ‘Elvira’ Star Cassandra Peterson With Love After She Revealed Her 19-Year Relationship With A Woman

For decades, the actress, writer, and singer Cassandra Peterson has been better known as her alter ego: Elvira, the horror hostess with the big hair and Mae West quips. She became a household name with the ‘80s horror movie show Movie Macabre. But there’s something else she kept close to the vest: In her new memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira, Peterson reveals she’s been in a relationship with a woman for the last 19 years.

On Monday The Advocate teased out the tidbit that Peterson has spent nearly two decades with one Teresa “T” Wierson. Before, she had been married to Mark Pierson, a fellow singer who became her manager. But then she met Wierson. As per The Advocate:

Their relationship began, as all the best do, at the Hollywood Gold’s Gym when Peterson spotted who she thought at the time was the hottest bad boy in Tinseltown. “Often, when I was doing my preworkout warm-up on the treadmill, I couldn’t help noticing one particular trainer — tan, tattooed, and muscular — stalking across the gym floor, knit cap pulled so low over his long brown hair that it nearly covered his eyes,” she writes in the book. “Dark and brooding, he gave off such intense energy that when he crossed the enormous gym floor, the waters parted and people stopped in their tracks to stare.”

It wasn’t until they had a chance encounter in the ladies room that she realized her “bad boy” was really a “bad girl” and the two soon became close, albeit platonically.

Wierson became her friend as well as her trainer. They even lived together. But they didn’t start a relationship until after her 25-year marriage ended:

One night, after they were out at a movie, Peterson felt a sudden desire to kiss Wierson. “I think I was even more surprised. What the hell was I doing? I’d never been interested in women as anything other than friends. I felt so confused. This just wasn’t me! I was stunned that I’d been friends with her for so many years and never noticed our chemistry,” she writes. “I soon discovered that we connected sexually in a way I’d never experienced.” She quickly realized she was falling in love T.

That was 19 years ago. On top of being Peterson’s partner, Wierson is also her personal assistant.

When the news broke, people freaked out that Elvira — long a gay icon — acknowledged that she was with a woman.

Peterson has played Elvira off and on since 1981, having invented the character when she was part of the Groundlings comedy troupe in Los Angeles. Halloween, her big holiday, will surely be a bit different this year.

(Via The Advocate)