Evelyn and Me marks the culmination of a journey I never expected to take. When I first agreed to help the legendary Evelyn Hugo with her memoirs, I couldn’t have known how deeply it would affect me. Her death earlier this year, while we were still in the middle of compiling her life’s story, left me with a sense of unfinished business but also a profound realization. Reflecting on the time I spent with her, I can see that it was filled with moments that were as complex and multifaceted as Evelyn herself. There were days of laughter, frustration, awe, and even admiration, but at other times, confusion and anger would take over as I questioned the person she truly was. What began as a simple memoir project turned into a profound exploration of the intricacies of her life, and more than that, it became a discovery of her deepest, most closely guarded truth.

I found myself constantly wrestling with my own perception of Evelyn. On the one hand, she was a woman who had achieved tremendous success in Hollywood, overcoming numerous obstacles to carve out a legacy that would span generations. But on the other hand, there was this layer of manipulation and deceit, a need for control that constantly worked to obscure the person underneath. It wasn’t just her glamorous image that had the world captivated, but her ability to conceal parts of herself that she wasn’t ready to share. She was a paradox: a brilliant, strong, and charismatic woman who knew how to win people over and achieve her desires, yet one who hid so much of her soul from the world. These conflicting aspects of her identity were something I found myself pondering often during our time together, and even now, I struggle to come to terms with them.

As I carefully read over our transcripts, reexamining the words that Evelyn spoke to me in the final weeks of her life, I began to understand the depth of the emotional and personal battles she had faced. One of the biggest revelations came when I learned about her love for Celia St. James. For years, Evelyn had concealed the truth about her sexuality, keeping it buried under layers of fame, public scrutiny, and the pressure to conform to societal norms. But when Evelyn finally confessed her love for Celia, it was not just a personal revelation—it was a statement of freedom. She had lived most of her life hiding that love, yet it had been the truest part of her being. In sharing this truth with me, she was reclaiming a part of herself that had been silenced for far too long. This revelation made it clear that Evelyn was more than just the public persona she had crafted—she was a woman who had loved deeply and struggled with the very same fears, doubts, and societal expectations that countless others had. But her love for Celia was not just an affair—it was the cornerstone of her existence, one that had shaped everything she did, from the choices she made in her career to the way she navigated her relationships.

Evelyn wanted the world to understand the power of that love and how it had fueled her most significant decisions. And even though sharing this truth came at a high personal cost, she chose to reveal it because, to her, the act of loving Celia was both a personal and political defiance of the world’s constraints. This confession was, in many ways, Evelyn’s most important act of rebellion. By sharing her truth with the world, Evelyn was taking back her narrative, rewriting the rules of what it meant to love, to live, and to be free. It wasn’t just about her love for Celia; it was about dismantling the walls of secrecy that had confined her for so long. Evelyn’s decision to share this part of herself, to openly claim her bisexuality, was a moment of clarity and courage, one that not only allowed her to embrace her true self but also inspired countless others to do the same. It was a powerful reminder that in the face of societal expectations, there is strength in living your truth, no matter how difficult that might be.