The Perfect Couple?
Photo: George Burns/Harpo Studios
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How are Fran and Peter now? "We were best friends in high school, and we're still best friends," Fran says. Though Fran and Peter have a great relationship now, they say it took time to get there.
When Peter married Fran, he says he had no idea he was gay. "We were living a heterosexual life," he says. "I wasn't having affairs on the side or anything like that. I thought that I was straight."
Peter says he first began therapy not because he questioned his sexuality, but because he and Fran were victims of a violent crime. In 1985, two armed men broke into Fran and Peter's Los Angeles home while a friend was visiting. All three were tied up and the house was ransacked. Fran and her friend were raped at gunpoint. The two men were later captured and arrested and one is serving a life sentence in prison.
While in therapy, Peter began to discuss the confusing feelings he had. "I saw three psychologists through our marriage that said to me, 'You're straight. You're not gay. You may have thoughts about it. You're not acting on it. Other men have these thoughts.'"
The crime happened years before Fran was famous, but during the height of The Nanny's success, tabloids uncovered the story. "People were calling my parents, they thought that it had just happened," Fran says. Although Fran and Peter had to relive the pain, she says it helped her move forward.
"In a way it was an opportunity because at that point, I was in therapy, and I was able to get in touch with a lot of feelings that I hadn't really addressed in the past," Fran says. "For me, the therapy was all about getting in touch with feelings that I was always in denial of. I was always everybody's caregiver, never really facing my true feelings on any level."
When Peter married Fran, he says he had no idea he was gay. "We were living a heterosexual life," he says. "I wasn't having affairs on the side or anything like that. I thought that I was straight."
Peter says he first began therapy not because he questioned his sexuality, but because he and Fran were victims of a violent crime. In 1985, two armed men broke into Fran and Peter's Los Angeles home while a friend was visiting. All three were tied up and the house was ransacked. Fran and her friend were raped at gunpoint. The two men were later captured and arrested and one is serving a life sentence in prison.
While in therapy, Peter began to discuss the confusing feelings he had. "I saw three psychologists through our marriage that said to me, 'You're straight. You're not gay. You may have thoughts about it. You're not acting on it. Other men have these thoughts.'"
The crime happened years before Fran was famous, but during the height of The Nanny's success, tabloids uncovered the story. "People were calling my parents, they thought that it had just happened," Fran says. Although Fran and Peter had to relive the pain, she says it helped her move forward.
"In a way it was an opportunity because at that point, I was in therapy, and I was able to get in touch with a lot of feelings that I hadn't really addressed in the past," Fran says. "For me, the therapy was all about getting in touch with feelings that I was always in denial of. I was always everybody's caregiver, never really facing my true feelings on any level."
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