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Maureen O’Hara’s defamation case against Confidential magazine was brought up again in a 2019 episode of You Must Remember This podcast.
Confidential, considered the National Enquirer of its day, published a sensational report in 1957 titled “Maureen O’Hara Hugs in Row 35, Hottest Show in Town,” claiming that Irish star Maureen O’Hara was seen making out with a Latino man at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
According to Confidential, the theater manager saw the couple lying across three seats, with the Latino lover on top, and he had to ask them to leave. But they didn’t leave, and when he returned again he saw O’Hara sitting on the Latino man’s lap, so he kicked them out.
As the author of Confidential notes, “When Maureen walked into the Grauman’s, she had worn a neatly buttoned white silk shirt. Not so now. The guy had come in wearing a spruce blue suit. Not so now. The coat was off, the collar open, the tie hanging halfway, limply in the steam.”
The accusation was shocking—O’Hara had a good reputation, was a conservative Irish girl, and had never thought of engaging in adultery.
Maureen O’Hara’s Marriage
At the time of the Confidential report, O’Hara had been married twice. One was to George Brown, the father of the famous magazine editor Tina Brown. O’Hara met George Brown while filming her first film, Jamaica Inn, shortly before she left Ireland for Hollywood. Their marriage was annulled in 1941.
Maureen O’Hara in My Little Pony.
In the United States, O’Hara fell in love with William Price, who was a legendary alcoholic outside of brothels and an unemployed producer in his spare time. The marriage ended in 1951.
O’Hara’s affair with Enrique Parra Hernandez
The same year that O’Hara divorced Price, she met the handsome lawyer and politician Enrique Parra Hernandez at a film festival in Mexico City. O’Hara fell in love with Price at first sight.
“I think at first I was just happy to be a part of his life and to see that he showed a genuine interest in me. When Enrique and I were together, we were inseparable,” she said.
According to Confidential magazine, she was dating Hernandez at the time and was madly in love with him, spending a loving night at the cinema.
The scandal was compounded by the fact that Hernandez was Hispanic, who were viewed as lower-class peasants in the atmosphere of the time. It was an angle that was certainly not lost on Confidential, which was notorious for its use of racial and anti-gay codes.
Oddly enough, the Grauman’s Theatre was known as a venue where Hollywood stars having affairs would sit alone in the back row, wearing head scarves, once they arrived at the theatre to avoid being seen in the hotel.
Of course, Confidential knew this and paid big bucks to hire ushers or managers to report on the sightings of Hollywood stars. O’Hara was a big fish.
She sat in three seats, with the cheerful Latino in the middle. They paused when the usher shone a flashlight on them, but the Confidential reported that “no sooner had the manager returned to the front candy stand than the usher in Aisle C followed him, breathlessly announcing, ‘There they go again!'”
Confidential libel trial
Confidential magazine lost a lawsuit for changing the theme song of the famous pianist Liberace to “Crazy for Boys”. The California government once wanted to close Confidential and sued the magazine for defamation. O’Hara’s case is one of them.
according to Los Angeles TimesIn 1996, O’Hara and other entertainers filed a lawsuit against the confidential company after being recruited by actor and future U.S. Senator George Murphy. Although the others withdrew from the lawsuit, O’Hara persisted.
O’Hara’s defense was clear. She was a good Irish girl who would never do such a thing. She even brought her sister, a nun, as a character witness.
Eventually, she proved the Confidential story wrong by providing a passport stamp that confirmed she was in Spain filming African Fire at the time, while the tabloid claimed she was at the Hollywood Theater.
The defense noted, however, that three years after the incident, no one seemed to be sure of the exact date, and it was likely that O’Hara was still in the country at the time.
The jury deadlocked, the state reached a deal with Confidential for its prying reporting, O’Hara claimed innocence, but the mystery remained.
*Originally published in March 2019, updated in August 2024.
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