Did Betty White Out Cary Grant?

While appearing on The Joy Behar Show to promote her new sitcom, Hot in Cleveland, Betty White and Behar started talking about gay actors and the Newsweek article suggesting they can’t convincingly play straight.

Behar mentioned Rock Hudson, suggesting that if everyone had known he was gay, he might not have had quite the same career success. White offered her own thoughts, then said it was the same for Cary Grant.

Read the transcript below, then watch the video.

Joy Behar: But when it comes to a man, all those years, I don’t know that Rock Hudson, he was the heartthrob -- let’s say he was out and everybody knew he was a homosexual, I’m not sure he would have had the career. That`s what the point of this article was.

Betty White: Actually it was his dear friend, his beloved friend Doris Day, who inadvertently outed him. She invited him to a show she was doing up in Carmel. So by then he had AIDS. So the minute he came on camera, then everybody knew. And Doris just couldn’t believe that she had been — you know, a party to that. But Rock was — was — everybody kind of knew his situation, but it didn’t seem to hold back his career.

Behar: No, no but ...

White: Cary Grant, the same thing.

Behar: Oh, he was gay too?

White: Oh, I don’t know.

Behar: Yes, you know something, Betty.

White: No, I don’t know. I never had him — I never had it.