Just in time for Spooky Season, actress and singer Cassandra Peterson — better known to the world as horror hostess and camp icon Elvira, Mistress of the Dark — just released her newest memoir, Yours Cruelly, this week, and in it, she comes out as part of the LGBTQ+ community and reveals that she has been in a long-term relationship with a woman named Teresa "T" Wierson!
News of Peterson's coming out rocked the internet in the best way, and longtime LGBTQ+ fans of the beloved, campy horror personality have been dying to know any and everything about the woman who swept Elvira herself off of her feet!
Here's what we know about Peterson and Wierson's relationship so far, according to the Yours Cruelly memoir:
A tale as old as time, Peterson and Wierson met, like a lot of queer people do, at the gym.
"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 recalls in Yours Cruelly about how she mistakenly took Wierson for a man during their first encounter. "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."
After a run-in in the women's restroom, Peterson learned that Wierson was, in fact, not a man, and the two started hitting it off as friends.
As fate would have it, around the same time Peterson was getting out of her 25-year marriage with ex-husband Mark Pierson, Wierson was also breaking things off with a longtime partner, and the two leaned on each other during a difficult, challenging time in both of their lives.
The two even started living together, and surely enough, they started to fall in love.
"I think I was even more surprised. What the hell was I doing? I’d never been interested in women as anything other than friends. I felt so confused. This just wasn’t me! I was stunned that I’d been friends with her for so many years and never noticed our chemistry," she said. "I soon discovered that we connected sexually in a way I’d never experienced."
After Peterson and Wierson got together, they had to keep their relationship on the hush-hush to protect themselves — and the Elvira brand — from homophobia.
"Would my fans hate me for not being what they expected me to be?" Peterson questions in Yours Cruelly. "I’m very aware that there will be some who will be disappointed and maybe even angry, but I have to live with myself, and at this point in my life, I’ve got to be truthful about who I am."
In addition to being in a relationship, Wierson also now works as Peterson's assistant, so the two are as close as ever!
Peterson and Wierson have been with each other for over 19 years now, and as Peterson says herself, they make each other feel truly loved and cared for, which is what everyone wants to feel at the end of the day!
"For the first time in my life I’m with someone who makes me feel safe, blessed, and truly loved."
