Cassandra Peterson, who has played Elvira for decades, claimed that losing 11,000 “horny old men” as followers was completely worth it if it meant she could finally be herself.
Peterson said on Thursday’s episode of David Yontef’s Behind the Velvet Rope podcast that her social media following plummeted after she came out in September of last year.
“I knew there would be some horny elderly men out there who wouldn’t appreciate the idea that they didn’t have a shot with me anymore,” the actress remarked. “And I don’t want to tell them they didn’t stand a chance against me anyway,” Peterson added.
Cassandra Peterson (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark) 1968
While she may have lost some straight males along the way, she also stated that she gained 60,000 new followers who are all very supportive of her and revealed that she has been in a 19-year relationship with her former personal trainer, Teresa “T” Wierson.
The news, however, “flipped everybody out,” the celebrity admitted. Nobody was expecting it. Others remarked, ‘Elvira, you lied to me. ‘I don’t have any respect for you anymore, Goodbye.’”
In her memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira, published at the end of last year, Peterson came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community for the first time, admitting that she had a connection with another woman after her 25-year marriage to Mark Pierson ended.
Since then, Peterson and Wierson have been together, but they have kept their relationship secret out of concern that it would harm the Elvira brand.
“Would my admirers despise me if I wasn’t the person they expected me to be?” she wonders. “At this point in my life, I don’t have a choice but to be honest about who I am,” Peterson continued.
Peterson writes, “For the first time in my life, I’m with someone who makes me feel safe, blessed, and sincerely loved.”
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