Very little was known about Katharine Hepburn's personal life, which she kept very private, but now a childhood friend is dishing on the "feisty" Hollywood star.
Peter Bulkeley, whose parents were good friends with Hepburn's, revealed what it was like growing up with the actress and spoke about her romantic endeavors in a recent interview with Closer Weekly.
"She was a very feisty person," he said. "If things didn't go her way, look out!"
Hepburn also enjoyed her seclusion away from the glitz and glamour and would often spend time at her family home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, Bulkeley noted. It was during these visits that he got a glimpse into her romantic life.
"One afternoon down at our little community beach, this seaplane came right into the harbor, and it turned out the pilot was Howard Hughes. They were pretty hot and heavy," Bulkeley said.
The couple dated for three years, from 1935 to 1938, before Hepburn met Spencer Tracy, who she "adored" despite him remaining with his wife throughout their 27-year affair, according to Closer Weekly.
Bulkeley recalled the day he met Tracy. He was at Hepburn's house to deliver a newspaper and decided to go inside to grab a glass of orange juice when he bumped into Tracy, who was sitting at the kitchen table. Bulkeley immediately noticed how much Hepburn cared for the actor.
"She obviously adored him," he said. "You could see it in the way she looked at him and patted his arm."
After Tracy's death from a heart attack in 1967, Hepburn began to spend more time at home, where she eventually died in 2003 at age 96.
"When she was in her mid-80s, she was still riding her bicycle," Bulkeley said, adding that one day, while out on her bicycle, she stopped to lecture him about painting a fire hydrant green.
"She stopped and said, 'Peter, what are you doing? All fire hydrants should be red!'" he remembered. "Then she rode off. That was Kate!"
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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