According to nydailynews
Elvira is coming out of the darkness of the closet.
Cassandra Peterson, the actress globally known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, is opening up about her 19-year romantic relationship with a woman.
On Tuesday, the 70-year-old gothic goddess released her autobiography, “Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark,” in which she reveals “her full story, filled with intimate bombshells,” according to the publisher.
Peterson writes about surviving a serious burning accident when she was just 18 months old; leaving her Manhattan, Kans., home at 14; and performing in Las Vegas just three years after that.
But there’s one important detail about her life that the indisputable queen of Halloween is only revealing now. For the past 19 years, Peterson has been in a relationship with another woman, her former personal trainer, who she refers to as “T.”
“Keeping a secret doesn’t feel good,” Peterson told The Orange County Register, speaking about finally opening up about her sexuality.
“I’m glad to have it out there,” she continued. “I mean, it does worry me. I have moments where I go, ‘Maybe people won’t like me anymore’ and ‘Maybe I won’t get work anymore.’ It’s ridiculous to think that, but I have friends who are gay and have come out of the closet and it affected their work, relationships and their life. So it’s not so far-fetched to be worried. But on the other side of that, it’s so draining keeping it a secret. It’s not good for you, it’s not good for us. It sucks the energy out of you.”
According to The Advocate, Peterson writes in the book that the two women met at a Gold’s Gym in Hollywood, and started out as friends.
“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. “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 Peterson and T saw each other in the ladies room that she realized that her “bad boy” was really a “bad girl.”