Cary Grant’s ex-wife addresses his long-standing gay rumors & relationship with Randolph Scott

The thing about the Golden Age Of Hollywood is… it was very, very gay.

Some of the era’s biggest names—Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, Ramon Navarro—were queer. And while they weren’t out at the time (for obvious reasons), friends and family have since shared their truths, giving us a new perspective on Tinseltown’s glory days.

So, when rumors began to swirl that legendary leading man Cary Grant was gay (inadvertently started by Betty White, of all people) no one was all that shocked.

Though the leading man wooed countless women on screen—from Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby to Ingrid Bergman in Notorious—and was married five times, there were whispers about flings with other men. He even lived with fellow actor Randolph Scott, on and off, for a number of years, with many claiming their relationship was romantic. And very passionate. 

Now, Grant’s fourth wife, Dyan Cannon, is addressing some of those rumors, and stoking our curiosity further.

Cannon is a three-time Oscar nominee, known for her work in sex comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, sports fantasy Heaven Can Wait, and (very queer) mystery classics Deathtrap and The Last Of Shelia. She and Grant married in 1965, had their daughter Jennifer the next year (his only child), and divorced in 1967.

In 2011, she wrote her best-selling memoir Dear Cary: My Life With Cary Grant, which became the basis of British network ITV’s miniseries, Archie, featuring Jason Isaacs as the late Hollywood star.

While doing press for the series, Cannon and Isaacs were asked about the rumors surrounding Grant’s sexuality:

“I heard rumors about Cary being gay before we married,” Cannon admits to uInterview. “I never saw any indication of that. Once, on a ship liner on the way to England, I saw him be very cozy, flirty with the captain. But other than that, I never saw anything.”

“If he did have relationships with men, it was before I knew him—but I never saw any indication of that,” the actress continues. “Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered to me. What mattered to me was the connection between us, and I must tell you that it was undeniably real, in the beginning.”

Cannon fondly remembers their courtship, remarking how “real” and “trusting” their relationship was at the time, but notes that things “changed radically” when they married, citing Grant’s difficult childhood and abandonment issues as the root of their troubles.

Isaacs weighed in, too, giving his opinion based off of the research and many conversations he had in preparation for playing Grant in Archie:

“As far as I am aware, he had many relationships, but the label ‘gay’ doesn’t really define what he was,” Isaacs says. “Today you might call him ‘fluid.’ If one believes what many people have researched in detail, then he certainly had relationships with men. One very long relationship [with actor Randolph Scott]. But then he was in love with women. He was in love with Dyan.”

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Grant and Scott met in 1932 on the set of Hot Saturday and shared a Malibu home together, which was dubbed “Bachelor Hall” by the press. Both Jerome Zerbe—who famously photographed the pair in their home—and fellow actor Richard Blackwell claimed to have slept with the two. In the latter’s autobiography, he wrote Grant and Scott “were deeply, madly in love, their devotion was complete.”

Grant’s daughter, Jennifer, previously dismissed rumors of her father’s queerness in her own memoir, Good Stuff: A Reminiscence Of My Father, Cary Grant, but more recently changed her tune:

“I never saw a hint of that,” she told The Guardian earlier this year. “I think I would have picked up on it—not that I would’ve cared… Perhaps earlier in his life he had an affair [with a man]. I’ll never know, but if he did, fantastic. I hope he enjoyed it.” 

Archie is now available to stream in the U.S. via Britbox.

Related:

10 juicy, must-read memoirs about the secret (and not-so-secret) history of gay Hollywood

From the first openly gay star to every A-Lister’s favorite rent boy, these reads explore gay old days of Tinseltown.