'Elvira' star Cassandra Peterson reveals 19-year relationship with woman

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Elvira, Mistress of the Dark actress Cassandra Peterson is being "truthful" about aspects of her love life she hasn't revealed before.

The star, 70, released a memoir on Tuesday and in it she reveals she's been in a relationship for 19 years with a woman she first met as a trainer at her gym.

Peterson writes in "Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark" that she first laid eyes on Teresa "T" Wierson while working out at Gold's Gym in Hollywood. She was attracted to the trainer's "dark and brooding" looks, initially thinking Wierson was a male.

"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 explains via People magazine.

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"A typical sexy bad boy, he was unaware he was so charismatic that he'd garnered his own unofficial fan club. Watching him from the safety of my treadmill made my heart beat faster and the time pass much more quickly," she adds in the book.

However, Peterson would learn during a run-in in the ladies' room that Wierson was indeed a woman. Peterson describes Wierson as an "incredibly sweet person, despite her tough exterior," and takes readers through her journey of befriending the trainer. It wasn't until years later that Wierson showed up to Peterson's home and moved in during a difficult period. 

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is revealing why she kept mum about her relationship with a woman for years. (Getty Images)

Peterson reflects on this development in the memoir, calling Wierson's presence a "huge relief" as the actress was in the midst of raising her daughter, Sadie, alone following the divorce from her husband Mark Pierson.

Peterson says the friends enjoyed "laughing, cooking," and more. However, one night things took a turn when Peterson ended up kissing Wierson goodnight.

"...After coming home from a movie, I told her goodnight and suddenly felt compelled to kiss her — on the mouth. As shocked as she was, I think I was even more surprised," Peterson recalls.

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Peterson writes that she felt "so confused" as she had "never been interested in women as anything other than friends. "I was stunned that I'd been friends with her for so many years and never noticed our chemistry. How could I have missed it? Was it the male energy she exuded that attracted me? Her intense green eyes? Or just my own loneliness?"

(Michael Tullberg)

Before she knew it, Peterson fell in love with Wierson, who she describes "like an angel."

Peterson also reportedly admits she was reluctant to go public with her now 19-year relationship with Wierson – and it had a little something to do with her career in Hollywood.

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"As Cassandra, it wouldn't have mattered to me that people knew about our relationship, but I felt the need to protect Elvira in order to keep my career alive. Elvira has always had a thing for men, and men have a thing for her, so I worried that if I announced I was no longer living the 'straight life,' my fans would feel lied to, call me a hypocrite, and abandon me," she says via the outlet.

"Would my fans hate me for not being what they expected me to be? 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."

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Peterson and Pierson ultimately called it quits in 2003.