20/20: Loretta Young's Secrets Revealed

Nov. 24 -- When Loretta Young died last August at the age of 87, the Oscar-winning star of more than a hundred movies was eulogized as a beautiful woman with a deep Catholic faith.

In death, as in life, they said she was perfect.

Joan Wester Anderson learned firsthand about Young’s flawed personal life when she moved in with her last year to write her biography. Young told her that as a 17-year-old movie star, she eloped against her mother’s wishes. The marriage would be brief.

The family priest scolded her, asking her to choose between Hollywood or Catholicism. He further told her that the choices she made in her personal life would have a profound impact on the lives of others; words Anderson says Young took to heart.

Judy Lewis, Young’s daughter, agrees. “She made her faith the center of her life,” Lewis says. “She made choices about her life, even her life in Hollywood, based on that faith.”

Hidden PassionsLewis was Young’s biggest secret, something she could not admit publicly for more than half a century.In the Hollywood of the 1930s, studio press agents invented steamy romances to promotetheir stars while the actors themselves were held to the rigid moral code of the times. Stars like Young had morals clauses in their contracts.