- 6/12/2025
From hidden love affairs to secret identities, some celebrities took their mysteries to the grave. Join us as we explore the untold stories that shocked the world after these stars passed away. From Hollywood legends to music icons, these revelations changed how we view these famous figures forever.
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00:00I looked like my father. I had my father's very large ears.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at celebrities who took huge secrets to the grave,
00:09some of which would be revealed after their passing.
00:11At that time, of course, a source close to Hudson indicated to me that he had about two months to live,
00:17and that was 61 days ago.
00:18Freddie Mercury.
00:19In November 1991, Freddie Mercury confirmed what many had suspected for years.
00:24The Queen frontman was HIV positive and had AIDS.
00:27A day after this statement was issued, Mercury passed away.
00:31He'd known for two years that he had AIDS, but had kept it quiet,
00:35living the life of a recluse in his £5 million mansion in West London,
00:39where fans have been paying their tributes.
00:41Although his illness had become public knowledge,
00:43there was still one secret that Mercury decided to keep between himself and his former life partner,
00:47Mary Austin, his final resting place.
00:50He'd given himself a limit,
00:54and I think, personally,
00:58that when he couldn't record anymore,
01:03or have the energy to do that anymore,
01:05then it would be the end.
01:07Mercury asked Austin to bury his cremated remains somewhere private.
01:11According to Austin, this was because he didn't want anyone trying to dig him up.
01:15Austin honoured Mercury's wishes,
01:17carrying his ashes in a plastic bag to a mystery location.
01:20You can ask Mercury's fellow Queen members and family,
01:23but Austin is reportedly the only living person who knows where Mercury resides.
01:33Coco Chanel
01:34Chanel remains a prominent beauty brand,
01:36although its namesake's ties to Nazi Germany cast a dark shadow over the company's legacy.
01:41Many biographies do mention how Coco Chanel is known to have Nazi connections,
01:46in particular her relationship with a Nazi officer during World War II.
01:51During her lifetime,
01:52it wasn't exactly a secret that Coco Chanel had a relationship with Hans Gunther von Dinglich,
01:57who reportedly collaborated with Nazis.
02:00What wasn't as well known is that Chanel herself was a Nazi agent,
02:04working for the intelligence company,
02:05Zische Heinsteinst.
02:06It is an honor to be invited as your guest.
02:11She not only answered to Walter Schellenberg,
02:13one of the agency's leading figures,
02:15but Chanel supposedly had an affair with him.
02:17She was also linked to Operation Modelhut,
02:19a failed attempt to negotiate peace between Germany and Britain.
02:23Avoiding prison,
02:24Chanel mostly managed to keep her Nazi connections under wraps,
02:27but recently,
02:28declassified documents have presented her in a very different light.
02:31Did you hear what I just said?
02:33They suspect me of collaborating.
02:35How could I possibly go to Berlin?
02:37Chadwick Boseman
02:38Various celebrities have privately faced fatal illnesses,
02:42although few deaths blindsided the public at Chadwick Boseman's.
02:45Following several acclaimed performances,
02:47Boseman landed his most high-profile role,
02:50as T'Challa in the MCU.
02:51I learned from my enemies.
02:53Beat them at their own game.
02:54You have become them.
02:56You will destroy the world, Wakanda included.
02:58The same year Boseman made his MCU debut,
03:00he was diagnosed with colon cancer.
03:02Boseman didn't slow down,
03:04headlining the billion-dollar Black Panther,
03:06while finding time for other projects.
03:08Oh, come on, Levy.
03:09We was all just having fun.
03:10Toledo ain't said nothing about you.
03:12He ain't said about me.
03:13You just taking it all wrong.
03:14He ain't meant nothing bad.
03:15Levy?
03:16Levy got to be Levy.
03:17And you don't need nobody messing with him about the white.
03:21You don't know nothing about me.
03:23You don't know, Levy.
03:25You don't know nothing about what kind of blood I got.
03:27Behind the scenes, though, his cancer was advancing.
03:30Only a small group was entrusted with Boseman's secret.
03:33Even directors like Ryan Coogler and Spike Lee
03:35didn't realize what Boseman was going through.
03:37We've been dying for this country from the very get.
03:40Hoping one day they give us our rightful place.
03:42The world found out under the most tragic circumstances
03:45when Boseman succumbed to his illness in 2020.
03:48Like a superhero with a secret identity,
03:50Boseman continued to inspire,
03:51even while enduring personal battles.
03:59Bob Crane.
04:00Best known for playing Colonel Robert on Hogan's Heroes,
04:02Bob Crane met a violent end in 1978.
04:05I was called in in the mid-afternoon
04:08after the body was discovered.
04:10Crane's friend, John Henry Carpenter,
04:12was accused of the murder,
04:14although he'd ultimately be acquitted.
04:15While his murders remain unsolved,
04:17a secret side of Crane's life would be exposed in the process.
04:20Crane had a vast collection of explicit photos and videos
04:23that he made with his partners.
04:25There was video equipment all over the living room.
04:27There was videotapes laying about.
04:31The actor was open about his sex obsession
04:32with friends, colleagues,
04:34and even certain family members.
04:36To the public, though,
04:36he maintained a fairly clean image.
04:39It's unclear if Crane's murder was connected
04:40to his sexual activities,
04:42which Carpenter was well aware of.
04:43In any case,
04:44the revelations about Crane's sex life
04:46proved nearly as shocking as his death.
04:49Bob Crane ain't a loser.
04:50It's you who brought Bob Crane down.
04:51Bob Crane is a good guy.
04:53Gene Spangler.
04:54Lending a few bit-movie parts,
04:56Gene Spangler was just getting her feet wet
04:58when she mysteriously disappeared in 1949.
05:01Last seen at a grocery store,
05:02Spangler was supposed to meet with her ex-husband
05:04and work on set,
05:05according to her sister-in-law.
05:07While their body was never uncovered,
05:09the authorities found her torn purse in the park
05:11with a note reading,
05:12Kirk, can't wait any longer,
05:14going to see Dr. Scott.
05:15Some suspected Kirk
05:16might be Kirk Douglas,
05:18who starred in a film Spangler worked on.
05:20I'm not going to be tied down to anybody or anything.
05:22From now on, I'm playing it my way.
05:23Douglas claimed he barely knew Spangler, however.
05:26Spangler was allegedly three months pregnant,
05:28possibly seeking an illegal abortion
05:30from the enigmatic Dr. Scott.
05:32Whatever Spangler was up to,
05:33any chance of getting an answer likely died with her.
05:36The nature of her disappearance
05:37has made it difficult for the police
05:39to pinpoint exactly what happened to her
05:41on that night in 1949.
05:44Charles Lindbergh.
05:45This famed aviator was at the center of a media circus
05:48when his firstborn son, Charles Jr.,
05:51was kidnapped and murdered.
05:52As he did when the baby disappeared,
05:54he shuts down his emotions
05:56and buries himself in the facts.
05:59Lindbergh went on to have more children,
06:01some hidden from the public eye.
06:02While he was married to fellow pilot Anne Morrow,
06:05Lindbergh had affairs with three European women,
06:07two of whom were sisters.
06:08He gave Brigitte, Marietta, and Valeska a P.O. box,
06:12where all three sent their letters.
06:16For security reasons,
06:17he constantly changed this P.O. box.
06:19Over a roughly 10-year period,
06:21Lindbergh fathered seven children with his mistresses.
06:24Shortly before his death,
06:25Lindbergh implored the three women
06:27not to reveal the true parentage of their children.
06:29The mothers kept the secret,
06:31although one of Lindbergh's illegitimate daughters
06:32eventually connected the dots.
06:34She sat on this information for years,
06:36but went public with Lindbergh's double life
06:38after her mother and Anne Morrow died.
06:40He went to extraordinary lengths
06:42to keep it all secret.
06:45And his methods are only now becoming public.
06:49Corey Haim.
06:50One half of the two Corys,
06:51this actor rose to fame in the 80s
06:53with films like The Lost Boys and License to Drive.
06:56Too bad for a kid without his license, huh?
07:00Yet, Haim's all-too-short life was riddled with tragedy.
07:03Both Haim and Corey Feldman
07:05allegedly endured abuse during their youth.
07:07Nobody still knows the full story except him.
07:09Following Haim's sudden death in 2010,
07:11Feldman claimed that his late friend
07:13had been abused by a major Hollywood figure
07:15during the production of 1986's Lucas.
07:17Feldman and fellow actor, Dominic Brazia,
07:20accused Charlie Sheen,
07:21who denied these allegations.
07:23Haim's mother also asserted that Sheen was innocent,
07:26saying it was actually Brazia
07:27who had been abusive toward her son.
07:29She also accused Feldman of exploiting Haim.
07:31Whatever the truth is,
07:33Haim sadly left this world with much unresolved.
07:35What is it like to be you?
07:38It's awful, it's empty, it's loneliness,
07:40it's just, it's not the greatest thing in the world.
07:42It's, uh, it's being alone.
07:45Who the f*** wants to be alone?
07:46Billy Tipton.
07:47When this jazz musician and band leader
07:49passed away in 1989,
07:51the paramedics realized
07:52he had been assigned female at birth.
07:54Really, at the moment that Billy passed away,
07:56and the moment the EMTs ripped his shirt open
07:59to try and, you know, keep him alive,
08:01was the moment that Billy's story, you know,
08:04became something completely different.
08:05This didn't just come as a surprise to the public.
08:08Most of his bandmates, romantic partners,
08:10and children had no idea that Billy Tipton was transgender
08:13until he died.
08:14I have no anger about anything that happened.
08:19Because I understand that he,
08:23his love of something
08:24is why he did what he did.
08:29While Tipton never married,
08:31he was involved with five women
08:32who'd go by Mrs. Tipton.
08:34Only non-Earl Harrell knew Tipton was trans.
08:37He told the other four
08:38that his body was damaged in a car accident.
08:41Tipton had been binding his chest since the 30s
08:43when he broke out on the music scene.
08:45Tipton's secret is one that many can identify with,
08:48showing how trans people have been hidden figures
08:50for much of human existence.
08:51There are so few accounts of us
08:53having access to, like, history that belongs to us,
08:57that is being created by us,
09:00that is being curated by us,
09:02that allows our voice and our vision
09:03to be a part of the process.
09:05Rock Hudson.
09:06Mere months before his death,
09:08it was confirmed that legendary actor Rock Hudson
09:10had been receiving treatment for AIDS.
09:12Hudson died quietly in his sleep
09:14this morning at his home in Beverly Hills.
09:17Although Hudson went forward with his diagnosis,
09:19he never officially came out to the public.
09:21It was something of an open secret in the industry
09:23that Hudson was gay.
09:25The revelation that Hudson had AIDS
09:26only seemed to confirm the rumors.
09:28As you know, Hudson was diagnosed
09:30more than two years ago.
09:31It got very serious about two months ago
09:33when he checked into UCLA
09:35after coming back from France.
09:37His friend, novelist Armistead Maupin,
09:40even claimed that he outed Hudson around this time.
09:42Amid the press and speculation, though,
09:44Hudson remained tight-lipped
09:45about his sexual orientation.
09:46It wasn't until after Hudson died
09:49that the public started seeing his life
09:50through a different lens.
09:51Hudson hid his double life to protect his career,
09:54but his diagnosis and death
09:55perhaps left the world more accepting.
09:57I want you to make this the type of place that,
10:00well, you'd feel comfortable in.
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10:18Clark Gable and Loretta Young
10:22In 1935,
10:24actress Loretta Young gave birth
10:25to her daughter, Judy Lewis.
10:27Although she claimed Judy was adopted,
10:29people couldn't help but notice
10:30a resemblance to Young's
10:31Call of the Wild co-star,
10:33Clark Gable.
10:33Why, Jack, I never suspected.
10:36The world doesn't understand me.
10:38At heart, I'm an artist.
10:40Indeed, Gable was her biological father,
10:42but Lewis wouldn't learn this
10:43until several years after his death.
10:45I was put into an orphanage,
10:48and at 19 months old,
10:51my mother announced to the world
10:52that she had adopted me,
10:55but it was all a smokescreen,
10:57and it fooled nobody.
10:59Before he died in 1960,
11:01Gable had only met with Lewis once.
11:03Lewis briefly told Gable about her life,
11:05before he left with a kiss on the forehead.
11:07And it wasn't until I was 31
11:09that I finally did ask my mother
11:12and did hear the truth from her.
11:14But by that time, my father had died.
11:16While Lewis wrote about her parentage,
11:18Young still refused to go on the record.
11:20Young would confess the truth to her biographer,
11:22albeit with a strict stipulation
11:24that the book not be published
11:25until after her passing.
11:26Releasing posthumously,
11:28Young's autobiography
11:29formally confirmed the secret.
11:31Can you think of any other
11:32celebrities who died with secrets?
11:34Let us know in the comments.
11:35Didn't I tell you?
11:36No!
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