Netflix’s new documentary series Secret Love shows a unique kind of coming-out story. Unlike many other coming out stories, this story focuses on an elderly couple who had to face the wrath of public ostracism of the LGBTQ back in the 90s. The documentary shows the couple in recent years, after several years of keeping their relationship private. They now finally enjoy the relief of being able to tell their family and friends the truth about their identity and relationship.
Creator of the series, Bolan says he knew he had to make a film after Donahue and Henschel revealed about their relationship to him in 2009. Once they realized it was possible to live openly, the women narrated to him “seven decades’ worth of stories.
Donahue and Henschel remained very much in love until the end, despite the fear they always had about coming out. The documentary was filmed between 2013 and 2018. It was filmed just in time to capture the couple in their final years together.
Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel met when Donahue was 22. She was in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — the women’s pro organization that inspired the 1992 Penny Marshall film A League of Their Own. While Donahue was considered a feminist icon in the 1940s, she still had to hide her sexual orientation for 65 long years. That’s how long Donahue and Henschel have been together, after falling in love in 1947.
For most part of their 65-year relationship, they kept their relation a secret. They finally decided to come out when they were in their 80s. This journey is wonderfully captured in A Secret Love, directed by Donahue’s great-nephew, Chris Bolan.
The touching documentary follows the two lovers as they grow old together and come to terms with Donahue’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease.