Actor Rock Hudson's so-called "gay confession" to his wife, a conversation that was recorded more than 50 years ago, has been revealed as part of a secret file release by the family of Detective Fred Otash.
Back in 1958, Hudson's wife, Phyllis Gates, confronted the Hollywood legend about being gay, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That confrontation was secretly tape-recorded by Detective Fred Otash, a private eye who had dirt on everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Judy Garland. Gates had hired him to keep tabs on her husband.
"Rock, your great speed with me, sexually. Are you that fast with boys?" Gates asked Hudson, according to a transcript of the discussion obtained by THR from Otash's family.
"Well, it's a physical conjunction [sic]," he replied. "Boys don't fit. So, this is why it lasts longer."
Gates' 1955 marriage to Hudson eventually deteriorated, as she described in her book, My Husband, Rock Hudson, via the Los Angeles Times. Their sex life was "brief and hurried," and he reportedly told her "all women are dirty." She wrote that she dodged phones calls from young men who claimed they were fans while Hudson disappeared for hours at a time. Domestic violence was allegedly another issue.
She filed for divorce in 1958, citing "mental cruelty."
Hudson, who died of AIDS in 1985 at the age of 59, never came out publicly despite incessant gossip about his sexuality. Author Sarah Davidson, who wrote the "Magnificent Obsession" star's authorized biography, has said that while Hudson may have been secretive about his sexuality, he was always hopeful about love.
"He wasn't into S&M, for example," Davidson told the late Roger Ebert, addressing rumors Hudson was into kink. "He was basically a very romantic man. He was like a woman; he'd run and tell his friends when he'd found someone new that he was in love with. He always believed there was one single right person for him, Mr. Right, and he was always looking for that person, and always finding him."
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