Katharine Hepburn’s ‘gay’ hideout in Beverly Hills hits the market for $1.4 million
A stunning Beverly Hills hideout where Hollywood A-Lister Katharine Hepburn spent time with a very special friend has hit the market for $1.4 million.
The two-bedroom wood-paneled home was owned at one point by wealthy New York socialite Laura Harding, who is primarily known for being Hepburn’s best friend.
There have also long been rumors that Harding, the heiress to the Smith, Barney & Co. fortune, was in an ill-defined romantic relationship with Hepburn.
The home, with its secluded location and feel, would have been the perfect hideaway for the two women, both of whom were aspiring actors who together moved from New York to Hollywood in the late 1920s.
They lived together in Benedict Canyon for several years, and Harding was often referred to as Hepburn’s secretary, as she began helping with Hepburn’s wardrobe design, public relations and negotiations with producers and directors.
Harding even once joked that she was ‘Miss Hepburn’s husband’.
Once Hepburn became famous, Harding went back to New York to live the heiress lifestyle once again, but she held onto the home for many years.
Built in 1923, the cozy-looking cabin is on a half acre of land in a wooded area. It has two bedrooms and one bathroom, with 1,200-square-feet of total living space.
Pictured: The exterior of a Beverly Hills home once owned by Laura Harding, the late New York heiress who was friends with Katharine Hepburn
The property, listed for $1.4 million, has been upgraded since Harding lived in it. Newer additions include solar power, skylights, and a large, renovated deck that looks out into the canyon
The living area in the home complete with breakfast counter is seen above
A freestanding bath tub is seen above in the property’s bathroom
Pictured: Hepburn returns to New York City from a trip to Mexico on May 3, 1934. Harding (left) accompanies her
The home retains much of its original charm – wooden floors, vaulted ceilings and a working Magic chef stove from 1928 – but has also been updated in recent years.
Newer additions include solar power, skylights, and a large, renovated deck that looks out into the canyon.
Hepburn was known to visit this house quite often while Harding was living there, only fueling the talk among their social circle.
Much of the narrative around the women being lovers is explored in the 2007 biography, ‘Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn’, written by William J. Mann.
Mann interviewed many people who knew both women and had insight into their closeness with one another.
‘I would say [Hepburn and Harding] were genuinely, deeply in love,’ a friend of both women told the biographer. ‘I don’t know how else to put it. In love. It was a passionate friendship, with all the love and expression that comes with it.’
Other friends said Hepburn’s most important relationship was with Laura and that she was her ‘great love’.
Emily King, Harding’s grandniece, also had plenty of observations about the two friends.
The home has two bedrooms – one of the bedrooms is pictured above
A path leading up to the secluded home – it offered the perfect amount of privacy for the two friends
An outdoor seating area is seen above. The property benefits from shaded areas in the blistering California heat
And area that can be used as a study is seen above – perfect for working from home in peace
The kitchen, complete with a working Magic chef stove from 1928 – is seen above
Harding came the most alive when Hepburn ‘dropped back into her life’ by taking her on a trip or visiting Harding’s 60-acre farm in New Jersey, according to King.
‘The bond was there,’ King said. ‘It was a large part of who Laura was, and it never went away.’
King also said that Harding was often vying for the approval of her father, J. Horace Harding, who became a partner at his wife’s father’s investment company, Smith Barney & Co.
Smith Barney went through a number of mergers in the following decades before Morgan Stanley bought a controlling stake in the firm after the 2008 financial crisis.
‘Laura wanted to be a boy,’ King told Mann for the Hepburn biography, ‘because her father didn’t have time for girls.’
Hepburn had a similar distaste for traditionally feminine presentation, cultivating a tomboy persona largely through her clothing choices.
She even had a phase as a child when she wanted to be called ‘Jimmy’ and be seen as a boy.
‘I was called Jimmy and I hated being a girl. I really hated it,’ Hepburn said in a 1999 interview with Katie Couric.
A fireplace in the two bedroom home is pictured above
A shower in the home’s only bathroom is pictured above
Harding and Hepburn (pictured) had a similar distaste for traditionally feminine presentation. Hepburn was particularly known for her tomboy aesthetic, eschewing dresses for trousers and shirts
Emily King, the grandniece of Harding (left, pictured with Hepburn in 1934) said her great aunt would have been happier ‘had she been gay’
‘I had three brothers, and I just shaved my head and thought “I’m a boy.”‘
Testimony from King and others suggest that both women were living strained lives characterized by a need to keep up appearances.
‘I think Laura would’ve been happier had she been gay,’ King said of her great aunt.
‘She ended up living her life as a heterosexual woman who didn’t like sex. With men, she liked the flirtation and the wining and the dining. But that was it. Then she’d flutter away.’
Hepburn officially denied that there was anything romantic between her and Harding in her 1991 bestselling memoir, ‘Me’.
The home is on the market through the Gambino Group at Compass. The listing agents are Cassie Levine and Carl Gambino.