Next came one of the most elaborate cover-ups in Hollywood history, with Young going to extraordinary lengths to keep her condition a secret. Somewhere between Seattle and Los Angeles, Gable entered her compartment and, a month later, a humiliated Young discovered she was pregnant. On the train back to Los Angeles from Seattle, the cast were, as Lewis tells it, given separate compartments. Young, terrified of going to Hell and with warnings from the family priest ringing in her ears, would flirt but never succumbed to advances from her co-stars. She also enjoyed a lengthy - if unconsummated - affair with Spencer Tracey, a fellow Catholic who, although separated from his wife, was unable to divorce. The nine-week shoot for Call of the Wild took place near Mount Baker, in a stretch of wild countryside three hours drive from Seattle.Īccording to Lewis, Young was prone to 'falling a little bit in love' with her co-stars and spent much of the shoot flirting with Gable who, in return, called her 'my girl'.īut flirtatious though Young might have been, she was a strict Catholic who had been badly hurt a few years earlier after eloping with and then divorcing her first husband Grant Withers. Young, who had begun her acting career as a four-year-old child, was one of Hollywood's brightest young stars when she met Gable in 1935. 'And that’s what Loretta really wanted to avoid - because who doesn’t want to be conceived in love?' 'Judy is not here to be hurt by this,' explains Lewis.
Tragedy: Now Young's daughter-in-law Linda Lewis has revealed that instead of an affair, Young was 'date raped' by Gable during a lengthy train journey
Secret daughter: Young, pictured with her daughter Judy, gave birth to the child in secret Secret: Young gave birth to a daughter by Gable - rumoured at the time to be because of an affair
The same fear kept the family quiet as well but following Judy's death aged 78 in 2011, Lewis and her husband Chris, Young's son by her second husband Tom Lewis, decided to go public. Lewis, who has since told her story to Buzzfeed journalist Anne Helen Petersen, was horrified but says for Young, the priority was always protecting Judy. On hearing her daughter-in-law's reply, she said: 'That’s what happened between me and Clark.' Young, a devout Catholic with a strong sense of right and wrong, was, according to her daughter-in-law Linda Lewis, the victim of a date rape at the hands of Gable.Īccording to Lewis, the revelation came after watching an episode of Larry King Live in which the topic was discussed.Īfterwards, the then 85-year-old Young asked Lewis to explain what date rape meant. The pair became close during filming and, shortly after the film wrapped, Young discovered she was pregnant - and went to great lengths to cover it up.įateful: Loretta Young (left) pictured with Clark Gable (right) in a scene from Call of the Wildīut while the truth about the paternity of her daughter Judy became public before her death, the real story about the circumstances of the little girl's conception have only just emerged. In 1935, the actress was working on a film called Call of the Wild with Clark Gable, then 34 and married to his second wife Maria 'Ria' Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham. She was one of the most beautiful actresses ever to step on set but Hollywood star Loretta Young went to her grave in 2000 with a dark secret.