Rumors about the former relationship between Venezuelan model and actress Patricia Velásquez and comedian Sandra Bernhard have existed for decades now, fueled partially by Bernhard’s own admission. The two were said to have met at a fashion show in Paris in the early 90s. According to The Scottish Daily Record, Sandra asked Patricia to meet her in her hotel that afternoon, and she came over 45 minutes later with pastries, ready to make out. Now, in her new memoir, Straight Walk, coming out February 10th, Velásquez confirms that relationship and her lesbian identity, revealing that Sandra Bernhard was actually the first girl she kissed. “I was deeply in love with Sandra,” she wrote in her book, “in a way I’d never experienced before.”
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It’s a major revelation from the legendary Velásquez, who is considered by many to be the world’ “First Latina Supermodel” — she’s been in several Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions, appeared on the cover of Vogue, walked the runway for Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, been featured in campaigns for Cover Girl and Pantene, just for starters. She’s perhaps best known for her role as Anck-Su-Namun in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, but you may recognize her from Arrested Development (she was the second actress to play Colombian soap opera star Marta Estrella) and The L Word (she played Begoña, the actress playing Marina/Karina in Lez Girls).
In “The L Word”
Velásquez grew up in poverty in a village with no running water and a mother who struggled to feed her six children, willing to sacrifice anything for their success and happiness. Her mother is a member of the Indigenous Wayúu people and her father is Mestizo. As a teenager, Velásquez was urged by a hairdresser friend to go into modeling. She went on a diet of chicken and tomato juice in order to compete in the 1989 Miss Venezuela pageant, in which she placed second. After three years of college, she moved to Milan and began her modeling career.
She’s also a mother and an award-winning activist and humanitarian. She’s the founder of the Wayúu Taya Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “educating the public and funding ways to improve conditions of Latin American indigenous groups, respecting their culture and belief.” In 2009, she received a “Women Together” award at the United Nations and the UN’s Solidarity Award in November 2010. In 2011 she launched her own organic line of beauty products, Taya Beauty, which are grown in environmentally sustainable programs in South American indigenous communities.
Her press materials note that in the book, she will “poignantly recall not only the triumphant story of working tirelessly to lift her family out of poverty, but also her years of feeling isolated, living a lie and hiding her true self from those she loved most.” The New York Post reviewer says that although Velásquez’s family was ultimately supportive of her coming out, “she also felt compelled to come out in a book, mainly because there’s so much prejudice that remains in the Latin community.” Her book is blurbed by heavyweights including Russell Simmons, Mariel Hemmingway and Narcisco Rodriguez, and promises to share a “strong message” about “the importance of female empowerment.”
In “The Mummy Returns”
Book Soup has this, vis a vis Post Hill Press:
“For many years, Patricia used her professional success to compensate for a secret she hid from her family. She convinced herself that her family’s happiness was more important than her own, and she spent years feeling achingly alone. Worse, she didn’t know the price she d pay for keeping a secret and living a lie, preventing not only herself from walking her journey, but those she loved most. Now she shares her story to empower others to live authentic lives and find their truth.”
Velásquez’s struggle is retrospectively apparent in interviews like this 2001 interview with Cinema.com, in which she fielded questions about why she doesn’t have a boyfriend (“I travel too much”), what she looks for in a man (“Anything that isn’t macho”) and whether or not she fears that one day she’ll “wake up and feel really lonely” if she doesn’t find a boyfriend soon (“No, not at all. First, I have my whole family, and I have great friends too. And I know that I’ll have kids at some point.”) before addressing the rumours about Sandra Bernhard:
There are all these rumours that you had an affair with [Sandra Bernhard. Are they true?]
Everyone talks about Sandra. Look, she was a very, very important person in my life – and she still is. She was a friend, she was like a mother to me, and also like my daughter sometimes. I had no idea who she was when we first met in France. She came to do a show and we became really good friends. People say many things, but at the end of the day people can say what they want. Sandra is somebody that I have in my heart forever, because I didn’t even speak English when I met her, and she taught me so much. I didn’t even know what a credit card was, or frequent flier cards or any of that stuff. She really, really helped me.
Velásquez’s accomplishments made her a role model before she ever sat down to write this book, but now that she has, she’s likely to inspire countless others to live their own truths. We can’t wait to see what she does next!
Our Senior Editor Yvonne Marquez will likely be interviewing Patricia soon, so if you have any questions you’d like her to ask, let us know in the comments! You can pre-order Straight Walk on Amazon now!
The Mummy is my favorite movie of all time and this is my favorite celesbian news of all time
oh my god so now we really can all be in love with marta
You are telling us you weren’t already?
Anck-Su-Namun is gay, twelve year old me is screaming in joy, I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR!
My body was not ready for this gif.
SAME HERE
YES. I totally only clicked on this because I saw “Mummy franchise” and I was like COULD IT BE??
Yvonne is interviewing her, holy shit!!!
I LOVE ME A GAY 1990s SUPERMODEL.
Something so sad about looking back at interviews done before someone came out. Like Annie Lebowitz’s Charlie Rose appearance before she was totally out about being together with Susan Sontag.
“Something so sad about looking back at interviews done before someone came out.”
Yes! I agree so much! It’s too real
Link?
It’s in the article! The link is to cinema.com
Oh yes, thanks!
…HERMANO
mon frere
She has a special place in one of my many many many many gay awakenings. When she was in the Mummy I remeber watching too closely eating noodles when I was home sick from school. Now I feel a sense of validation and seeing more Latina women coming out fills me with great joy.
So you go up to a supermodel and ask her to come to your room, and she does, with sweets to boot?
Damn, I wish I had Sandra Bernhard’s game.
What we need here is Sandra Bernhard’s book of dating tips. I mean, I’m excited about this and all, but, after reading this, THAT’S the book I feel would be really, uh, meaningful. Yeah. Meaningful.
In honour of The Mummy, can we now officially adopt painting ourselves head-to-toe in gold as a lesbian style choice? I’ve been rocking it on the side for a while now, but I feel it should be community-wide.
(Also, this news just makes me happy.)
As soon as I saw this headline I immediately thought WILL WE FINALLY FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH THOSE PASTRIES !
I don’t feel fully sated on that front, but I appreciate the detail of the frequent flyer points situation. Once I am over the excitement and can think clearly I will think about just how “being educated about frequent flyer points” can be a euphemism for lesbian sex.
Sally, we will make it our mission to GET THE STORY ON THE PASTRIES
SALLY i read the book and HER MOTHER ALWAYS TOLD HER NOT TO SHOW UP SOMEWHERE EMPTY-HANDED
HOW FUCKING ADORABLE IS THAT
I KNEW IT. I knew those pastries had some incredible cosmic significance, and I don’t even believe in cosmic significance.
This story has everything: maternal insight, homespun wisdom, glamorous locations, pastry and LESBIANS.
WHY IS NO-ONE MAKING A FILM OF THIS ?
Eeeexcellent.
I hope the first Marta is gay too because I was in love with both of them.
Pure LOLing at your citation of the Daily Record. Whit a riddy.
Congrats, but I could have swore she came out years and years ago. Like you said, in large part due to Bernard speaking about the relationship. I remember Patricia from the Mummy but also from when she appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, a show that is not a good look for anybody but she was mostly pleasant and not at all crazy like a lot of celebs who appear on that show.
You’re not wrong. There were rumours about Patricia Velasquez’s orientation for a decade (though they always stated she was bi, not gay).
yeah, she just never admitted it publicly — i just read her whole book and she definitely says she never said a word ’til writing this book. apparently one Venezuelan newspaper wrote a tiny gossip bit about her & sandra back in the early 90s but she denied it and it never caught on, and pre-internet it never showed up over here
That’s what I’d always heard. I’d heard different people and stories refer to her as Bi, but I never really heard her say it. They also always referred to Sandra Bernhard. I also recall her mentioning trying to contact “former lovers” while she was on The Apprentice. I thought that was kinda hot. I’ve always had a crush on her. Glad she’s happy with herself.