The Netflix documentary A Secret
Love tells the story of a lesbian couple who kept their
relationship a secret for more than six decades.
Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel became
inseparable when they met in 1947. Donahue was around 22 and playing
as a catcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
(AAGPBL). The AAGPBL was the inspiration behind Penny Marshall's 1992
film A League of Their Own. Henschel was 18 and would travel
with the team to watch Donahue play.
Meeting Donahue “changed everything,”
Henschel says in the film.
The couple decided to come out in their
eighties as they faced growing old together. Donahue's diagnosis of
Parkinson's disease sparked their decision. Donahue died in 2019 at
age 93.
Chris Bolan, Donahue's great-nephew,
directed the film.
“She didn't want to go to the grave
feeling like she'd lived a lie,” Bolan
told TIME.
The documentary, which arrives
Wednesday on Netflix, was filmed between 2013 and 2018. It is one of
the many projects coming to Netflix from producer Ryan Murphy, who is
gay and known for including LGBT characters in his dramas.