21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards – Press Room
"Obviously, I wasn't any good,"
Debbie Reynolds once said — in reference to her own sex life! The Hollywood legend didn't mind talking publicly about how she wasn't
nearly as decadent as her daughter
Carrie Fisher, who passed away just a day before Debbie died from a stroke at the age of 84. But that doesn't mean that Debbie stayed away from scandals. The wholesome star ended up having plenty of sordid stories from her wild days in Hollywood!
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Cutting the Cake
Debbie was a virgin at 23 when she married
Eddie Fisher, and then lost her husband to
Elizabeth Taylor while they vacationed together. Debbie recalled that she was determined to get pregnant during the trip. "I was swift, and so was Eddie," she said — and explained she spent the rest of the vacation "using the beautiful headboard on our bed to prop my legs up every night." Eddie, meanwhile, was being lured by Liz, and ended up giving Debbie an earful!
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Taylor And Fisher
The jilted star revealed how she called up Elizabeth at home while lonely with Eddie away on a tour — and her husband picked up the phone! "Suddenly, a lot of things clicked into place,"
Debbie recalled. "I could hear her voice asking him who was calling — they were obviously in bed together. I yelled at him, 'Roll over, darling, and let me speak to Elizabeth!'"
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Frank Sinatra And Debbie Reynolds In ‘The Tender Trap’
The resulting scandal — as Eddie left Debbie to become Liz's fourth husband — wrecked her husband's career, and enforced Debbie's reputation as a "nice girl." That didn't mean that she didn't appreciate some of her costars — recalling that
Frank Sinatra, her leading man in 1955's "The Tender Trap," was a memorable partner: "I really enjoyed the scenes where we made out."
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Singin’ In The Rain
That was a far cry from her screen debut with
Gene Kelly on the set of "Singin' in the Rain" — where her costar abruptly stuck his tongue in teenage Debbie's mouth while rehearsing a scene. Expecting just a small peck on the lips, a stunned Debbie panicked and ran back to her dressing room! "I immediately backed up and started coughing and sputtering, and oh, it was like something horrible had happened," Debbie recalled.
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Debbie Reynolds and Tony Randall
Debbie would become more accustomed to bad behavior on the film set — even from gentlemen like
Tony Randall! She was filming 1959's "The Mating Game" with Tony when his side of the trailer suddenly began to shake! She rushed over to open the other door and found a nude Tony jumping on the couch while singing opera! "Watching Tony float in the air stark naked definitely caught me a bit off guard," she laughed — adding: "I must say, he was quite well-endowed."
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AGNES MOOREHEAD;ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY
Other people who worked with Debbie, however, wouldn't think she'd even notice Tony's attributes. Carrie Fisher blamed her father Eddie for spreading rumors that her mother was a lesbian, while Debbie blamed
Tony Curtis. But plenty of insiders in Hollywood were convinced that Debbie and "Bewitched" star Agnes Moorehead were an item!
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The Singing Nun
Eddie even once reportedly told an interviewer: "I think my wife is a lesbian." Insiders said that Eddie also threatened to write in his autobiography that Debbie and Agnes (seen here in 1966's "The Singing Nun") were longtime lovers — but left the speculation out of his book after Debbie threatened him with a lawsuit.
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Bob Hope & Friends Fall Show – August 31, 1991
Debbie was used to indiscretion from her fellows stars, too — saying that she was once shocked when
Bob Hope casually introduced her to his mistress, with his poor wife Delores standing nearby! Debbie also revealed how Milton Berle — then welcome in everyone’s home as “Uncle Miltie” — would hire notorious gay male prostitute Scotty Bowers to serve his guests hors d’ouevres in the nude! Some surprised guests, Debbie wrote, would take a few moments before figuring out “they weren’t holding an actual sausage!”
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Ron Galella Archive – File Photos
Sadly, Debbie would never find real love in the bedroom or anywhere else in her opulent homes. "I have very poor taste in men," she said, "and I married all the wrong men." Her two husbands after Eddie Fisher included Richard Hamlett — with Debbie claiming that he cheated on her while driving her Las Vegas hotel into bankruptcy.
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Actress Debbie Reynolds and Husband Harry Karl on Wedding Day
Her second marriage to Harry Karl lasted 13 years — and ended with him cheating and draining the MGM starlet’s bank account. Debbie was still determined to save that marriage, and even consulted a professional call girl to spice up their bedroom antics. Debbie found the prostitute had a bag of "playthings that would have filled a floor at Toys 'R' Us," she said, insisting that "nothing I did was evil, or what I'd call sinful."
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To The Future!
Debbie managed to remain wholesome, she insisted, even though married men wouldn't believe her! That included her pal
Desi Arnaz. “He was a charmer when he was sober,” wrote Reynolds, “but when he drank, it was all over!”
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Lucille And Desi
Desi’s
bad behavior would lead to an awkward phone call when his worried wife
Lucille Ball called Debbie one morning to see if Desi was at her house — with Debbie reassuring the television star that she would never sleep with her husband. “I took a chance,” replied an embarrassed Lucy.
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The Hollywood Chamber Community Foundation’s Heroes Of Hollywood Awards Luncheon Honoring Debbie Reynolds
Still, Debbie looked back at herself as a bomb in the bedroom. As she recalled in 2015: "My husbands all repeatedly said the same thing, that I was not a very passionate woman. I have never wished that I had more sex. If I've missed anything, then maybe someone will let me know, and maybe they will introduce me to it — but I don't think that's going to happen!"
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