Cassandra Peterson has spoken out about how people reacted to her coming out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Peterson, who is best known for playing horror hostess Elvira in the 1980s, shared that she has been in a relationship with Teresa “T” Wierson for almost two decades in her memoir Yours Cruelly, released in September 2021.
Speaking on an episode of Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef released on 5 January, Peterson revealed what coming out was like for her.
“Nobody was ready for that,” she explained. “And apparently we kept it a pretty damn good secret because nobody knew — and everybody was surprised.”
The 70-year-old explained that friends and family received the news well, though the same cannot be said for some of her heterosexual fans.
“The straight people, I knew that there was going to be some horny old men out there who were just not going to like the fact that they didn’t have a chance with me anymore,” she jokingly told Yontef.
“And I hate to tell them they already didn’t have a chance of me anyway,” she added.
The Elvira’s Movie Macabre star stated that despite gaining roughly 60,000 followers on an unnamed social media platform when news broke about her relationship, she also lost around 11,000.
“People just said, ‘Elvira, you lied to me. I don’t respect you anymore. Goodbye,’” she told the podcast host.
“It was funny,” Peterson continued. “I know it was mostly straight older guys who just felt lied to. I don’t know. Can’t please everybody!”
She revealed that what worried her most about coming out was how her LGBTQ+ fans would take the news.
“Honestly, I worried more about my gay fan base,” Peterson added. “Because I hope they embraced it, but I was feeling like, ‘What if they think I’m a big fat hypocrite and I was lying to them?’”
You can listen to the podcast episode in full below or by clicking here.
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