Even in the Internet age, this has been one of the oldest kept secrets from back in the day. This A-list actress (at least I consider her A-list because she was my Grandma's favorite actress) was considered one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of her generation. She was groomed by the old studio system, as many were- hair changed, face changed, name changed. Tens of thousands of dollars were spent on grooming her for stardom by the studio. You know the drill. In the beginning, our actress (who I'll call Ms. D) was compliant with the studio's control over her life, but underneath that she had a big time subversive streak.
At first, she was able to hide it, but eventually studio people became aware of it and knew they had a major problem on their hands. Our actress loved to party and had lots of friends. She also loved men, especially men who came from backgrounds that the studio honchos deemed very inappropriate for her. Not only did she love men, but she also loved women. Lots of them. And was not afraid to be seen in public with some of her female lovers. Ms. D was also politically outspoken, which was a big no-no in those days. Since this was a different time, Ms. D's behavior became a big public relations problem for her studio who struggled to keep a lid on her activities. Unlike other actresses at this time, Ms. D was able to get away with most of her behavior in spite of the studio's concerns about her. One of the reasons is because one of Ms D's lovers was the wife of a very highly placed studio boss. Ms. D was also smart and kept photographic proof of her liasons with the wife of the studio boss, which the studio knew she would use as leverage. Ms. D was pretty smart and was able to beat the studio goons at their own game - at least for a little while.
As time went on, Ms. D fell deeply in love with a man in the entertainment business who was deemed "inappropriate" for her. We'll call this man Mr. V. There were lots of rumors about the relationship floating around at that time, and the studio was becoming very nervous about the situation. Then Ms D. got pregnant with Mr. V's baby. And naturally, they were in love and decided to get married. Studio bosses, of course, lost their minds over this potential marriage and went into overdrive to contain the situation. Rumor has it that they staged a break-in to Ms. D's home and were able to get their hands on incriminating evidence she had saved to use as leverage for herself, related to her female lovers. They then told Ms. D that if she did not get an abortion and break off the relationship with Mr. V, they would make use of that stolen evidence to out her publically as a lesbian. Ms. D told them to pound sand and also refused to get an abortion. She went into hiding until her baby was born. Ms. D was also lucky in that she had the body type that made concealing the pregnancy easy. (Very few people suspected anything was amiss until she was about six months along and she went on an extended "vacation").
Once the baby (a little girl) was born abroad, Ms. D made sure she was placed with an affluent family. Ms. D and Mr. V visited the child regularly and when she was old enough, the child was told all about her adoption and paternity. What is interesting is that the child is now a grown woman and is also a well known actress herself, who I'll call Ms. B. Since she is foreign born, no one suspects any connection to her birth parents. But if you were to know the background of this story and look at Ms. B., she looks exactly like her biological parents. It's actually amazing that no one has noticed this before and connected the dots. Ms. B and Ms. D have agreed that when Ms. D dies, Ms. B will go public with the story. Ms. D is older and unwell, so it will be interesting to see how soon after her passing the story is revealed.