Kim Novak is ready to tell all at the age of 90.
The “Vertigo” icon, who celebrated nine decades around the sun on Feb. 13, gave a rare interview in which she revealed how her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr. was misconstrued by others.
Speaking to People about her life, career and upcoming documentary, “Kim Novak: Hollywood’s Golden Age Rebel,” she described how she felt the immense “pressure to be seen and not heard” when it came to her love affair with the multifaceted entertainer during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
“I told them a lot of revealing things,” Novak said about her doc. “I was very open. I told them about my life in Hollywood, I also told them about the real story of Sammy and me. That was often misunderstood.”
Novak is hoping to set the record straight, which she feels is a “catharsis.”
“I just wanted to be totally open about everything that had been more secretive in the past,” the former actress said. “While you’re still alive, to be able to be questioned and answer truthfully, to clear up all kinds of mistaken views and all, it’s catharsis.”
Davis and Novak’s forbidden love began to blossom in 1957 when the pair locked eyes at the Chicago nightclub, Chez Paree, where Davis was singing and Novak was a guest.
However, they received a hefty amount of backlash from the industry’s top executives due to their interracial relationship, which was still illegal in half the states, Smithsonian Magazine reported. Around that time, only 4% of Americans approved of interracial marriage, a Gallup poll found.
So, “The Man With the Golden Arm” star and the Rat Pack member’s association was short-lived, as Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn (also known as one of the most feared people in the film biz) ordered that the two should break up.
Cohn then instructed Davis to marry a woman of color within 48 hours and threatened his life if he didn’t end his relationship with Novak, according to Smithsonian.
Cohn — who allegedly had mob connections — scared the “Ocean’s 11” actor by saying he would have both his legs broken and his eyes cut out if he didn’t find a wife within two days.
Davis then married Loray White in 1958, and they divorced a year later.
Meanwhile, Novak said “I do” to Richard Johnson in 1965, and they split several months later. She wed her second spouse, Robert Malloy in 1976, and they stayed together until his death.
While Novak hasn’t acted in years, she’s still keeping up with Hollywood. Novak told People that she’s a fan of Pamela Anderson and felt as though the two blond bombshells are kindred spirits.
The painter gushed over the “Baywatch” star’s sheer boldness to “expose herself and be vulnerable” in her documentary, “Pamela: A Love Story,” which was released on Netflix earlier this month.
“I think that’s beautiful,” Novak said. “When you’re inside of the person who someone is looking at, you’re not looking from their perspective.”
“They may see you as a sex symbol, but that’s not how you see yourself, and that’s what was beautiful about Pamela’s documentary,” she added. “She was showing us the person she was growing up and who she was through these relationships, not of how it looked to other people, but from the perspective of how it felt to her.”
