Rock Hudson's ex-wife dead at age 80

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The secretary who briefly married homosexual actor Rock Hudson, Phyllis Gates, has died in Marina del Ray, Calif., at age 80.

Gates, who insisted she married for love and not to help cover the fact Hudson was gay, died of lung cancer Jan. 4, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

Gates was the secretary for Hollywood talent agent Henry Willson, who set the pair up as he tried to stave off a number of threats to reveal publicly Hudson's homosexuality.

The couple married on Nov. 9, 1955.

Gates wrote in her book "My Husband, Rock Hudson," that he warned her not to believe any rumors she may hear or read about him.

What started out as a fairytale union, however, started to fall apart. Gates wrote their sex life was "brief and hurried" and her husband would disappear for hours without explanation. She also alleged abuse, claiming he hit her twice and once tried to choke her, the Times said.

Her divorce papers, filed in 1958, charged Hudson with mental cruelty. She was granted $250 a week alimony for 10 years. The last time she saw her husband was at their divorce hearing.

Gates never remarried and before Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, he said she was one of two people had ever loved.