“We’re all saddened by the loss of Elizabeth Taylor, and it seems like that the star had kept a secret for a friend of hers until she died.
The secret was told to interviewer Kevin Sessums, and he was made to promise that he wouldn’t reveal it until her death. The secret is about film legend James Dean.
Here’s what she kept to herself and Sessums:
“I loved Jimmy. I’m going to tell you something, but it’s off the record until I die. OK? When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister. I think that haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot. During Giant we’d stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me.”
That’s so sad, and so horrible. We’re shocked to hear this as most everyone probably is.
We’ll always remember James and Elizabeth. She was a true friend, and a wonderful person. We’re so sorry that James had to go through that when he was younger, as nobody should ever have to.”
…Sad, indeed. But not at all shocking if you’ve read the biography “James Dean: The Mutant King” by David Dalton. It goes into Jimmy’s childhood relationship with Reverand James DeWeerd, and although it doesn’t explicitly state that DeWeerd molested Dean, the book makes it pretty clear that he gained the boy’s admiration and trust only to exploit it. He became much like a father figure to young Jimmy, but he was also a predator, and there’s no doubt this would have haunted Dean for the rest of his life.
