Elvira shares she’s been in a 19-year relationship with a woman

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

Elvira, the famed “Mistress of the Dark,” has shared she identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

The actress, who was born Cassandra Peterson, shared her love story in her new autobiography, “Yours Cruelly, Elvira.”

Peterson writes that she was a new mom decades ago trying to get back into pre-baby shape at Gold’s Gym in Hollywood when “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.”

“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,” she wrote. “A typical sexy bad boy, he was unaware he was so charismatic that he garnered his own unofficial fan club.”

It turned out that the “sexy bad boy” was actually Teresa “T” Wierson.

Peterson was married at the time to her manager, Mark Pierson, with whom she shared a son and she and Wierson became friends.

That friendship turned romantic after Peterson and her husband split and Wierson — fresh out of her own relationship and rehab with no place to go — moved in with Peterson and her son.

After a night out, Peterson wrote, she felt compelled to kiss Wierson — much to their surprise.

“I’d never been interested in women as anything other than friends. I felt so confused,” Peterson wrote. “This just wasn’t me! I was stunned that I’d been friends with her for so many years and never noticed our chemistry,.”

Because her Elvira brand was so tied to being a sexy temptress for men, Peterson worried that going public with her relationship might damage her brand, writing “I’m very aware that there will be some who will be disappointed and maybe even angry, but I have to live with myself, and at this point in my life, I’ve got to be truthful about who I am.”

“For the first time in my life I’m with someone who makes me feel safe, blessed, and truly loved,” she wrote.

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