The Secret Was Hiding in Plain Sight
For years, she had been the woman standing just outside the photographs. She traveled with Humphrey Bogart, worked on his movies and was welcomed into his home.
Then, 25 years after Bogart was gone, Verita Thompson revealed what she claimed had really been happening whenever nobody was looking.
Her Name Was Verita Thompson
Publicly, Verita Thompson was known as Bogart’s personal hairdresser, wig expert and occasional secretary. According to Verita, however, that was only part of the story. In 1982, she announced that she had also been his longtime lover—even during much of his famous marriage to Lauren Bacall.
Acting Did Not Go Quite as Planned
Verita originally came to Hollywood hoping to become an actress after finishing second in the 1935 Miss Arizona Pageant. Her screen career ended almost immediately when she fell from a horse and broke her arm while working on a Western. Wig-making turned out to be the safer career.
Then Came Bogart
After studying hairdressing and wig-making, Verita built an impressive Hollywood clientele that reportedly included Gary Cooper, Charles Boyer, George Raft and Ray Milland. Eventually, she began working with the biggest name of them all—and the relationship she later described went far beyond keeping his hairpiece in place.
Published by The Minneapolis Tribune-photo from Warner Bros., Wikimedia Commons
According to Verita, One Dance Changed Everything
Verita said she met Bogart at a party celebrating the completion of Casablanca in 1942. “Bogie didn’t like to dance, but, honey, we danced the night away,” she later recalled. According to her version of events, they became lovers almost immediately.
Unknown author, distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Wikimedia Commons, modified
There Were Two Marriages in the Way
At the time, Bogart was still married to his third wife, actress Mayo Methot. Verita was also married, to Robert Peterson. Bogart and Methot’s famously turbulent relationship was already in serious trouble, but Verita’s account placed her inside that marriage two years before Lauren Bacall entered the picture.
National Motion Picture Council, Wikimedia Commons
He Apparently Talked About Marriage
Verita claimed Bogart discussed the possibility of marrying her while both of their marriages were falling apart. She later admitted that she hesitated, unsure whether she wanted to become the next Mrs. Bogart. It was a decision she would apparently have plenty of time to reconsider.
Then Lauren Bacall Walked In
Bogart met 19-year-old Lauren Bacall while filming To Have and Have Not in 1944. Their attraction quickly became impossible to hide. Bogart divorced Methot in May 1945 and married Bacall just 11 days later, creating one of the most celebrated romances in Hollywood history.
Liberty Publishing, Wikimedia Commons
She Found Out From the Newspaper
According to later accounts of Verita’s story, Bogart never personally told her that he had chosen Bacall. She reportedly learned about the wedding the same way the rest of the public did—by seeing it in the newspaper. Whatever Bogart had once promised, the decision had now been made for her.
That Should Have Ended It
Verita said her relationship with Bogart initially stopped when he fell for Bacall. Bogart had married one of Hollywood’s most exciting young stars, and Verita appeared to have been pushed permanently out of the picture. Then, according to her, he came back.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
She Said He Asked to Start Again
Verita claimed Bogart contacted her roughly three months after marrying Bacall and asked, “Any chance that we might pick up where we left off, Pete?” The quote appeared only in Verita’s telling, but she said the conversation marked the beginning of a secret relationship that continued for years.
Archive Photos, Wikimedia Commons
The Perfect Cover Was Sitting on His Head
Bogart was losing his hair, and Verita was an expert at making and maintaining hairpieces. Her job gave her a perfectly plausible reason to remain close to him during productions, publicity appearances and trips. A hairdresser traveling with the man whose hairpieces she maintained did not automatically look suspicious.
Warner Bros., Wikimedia Commons
Bogart Put Her on the Payroll
When Bogart left Warner Bros. and formed his own production company in 1949, Verita said he had her written into his personal agency agreement. From that point forward, she reportedly worked on all but four of the final 18 movies he made.
Trailer screenshot, Wikimedia Commons
She Was Almost Always Nearby
Between 1950 and 1956, Verita traveled with Bogart as his hairdresser, secretary, bartender and general companion. Her professional role kept her visibly close to him for years. The unanswered question was whether that closeness was purely professional—or something far more complicated.
unknown (Warner Bros.), Wikimedia Commons
Bogart Apparently Needed Options
Verita reportedly traveled with a suitcase containing as many as 10 Bogart hairpieces. There was supposedly a more polished one for formal occasions and a messier version for casual scenes. When he once appeared without one, Verita reportedly told him he looked awful without it—like an old man.
Warner Bros., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
He Hid It With a Joke
Verita said Bogart called her “Pete” and sometimes introduced her as his “secretary and mistress.” According to her, he believed saying it openly would make everyone assume it was another one of his jokes. It was a clever strategy—assuming her story was true. Tell people the secret and watch them laugh at it.
The Santana Gave Them Somewhere to Go
Bogart loved sailing and spent as much free time as possible aboard his 54-foot yacht, Santana. Verita shared that enthusiasm and claimed the boat became one of their regular escapes. According to Verita, Bacall’s interest in sailing faded after the marriage, giving Bogart and his hairdresser more time together on the water.
John Kobal Foundation, Getty Images
She Ate Dinner With Bacall
The strangest part of Verita’s account may have been how deeply she entered the Bogart family’s life. She said she was invited to dinner at their home and became familiar with Bacall and the children. Refusing those invitations, Bogart allegedly warned her, would have looked far more suspicious.
She Thought He Might Still Leave
Verita claimed she continued believing Bogart might eventually leave Bacall—at least until the birth of their son, Stephen, in 1949. Once Bogart became a father, she reportedly accepted that the marriage was not ending. The relationship she described, however, supposedly continued in a different and increasingly complicated form.
Associated Press published by Corpus Christi Caller-Times via Newspapers.com, Wikimedia Commons
Bacall Believed Bogart Was Loyal
Lauren Bacall never publicly responded directly to Verita’s later claims. Years afterward, while discussing how her own relationship with Bogart began during his marriage to Mayo Methot, Bacall said, “He was totally loyal to whoever he was married to.” It was not a direct denial of Verita’s story, but it revealed how Bacall chose to remember him.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
She Married Someone Else
In 1955, Verita married Walter Thompson. Most accounts place the end of her alleged romantic relationship with Bogart around that time. Yet she remained connected to both Bogart and Bacall, still occupying that strange space somewhere between employee, family friend and something more.
Warner Bros., Wikimedia Commons
One Final Call
As Bogart’s health failed, Verita claimed he asked her to check on Santana. After finding the yacht freshly painted, she telephoned him. According to Verita, Bogart told her, “Don’t drink all my scotch, I’ll be down there soon.” He never returned to the boat.
Bogart Was Gone
Humphrey Bogart died on January 14, 1957, at the age of 57. Hollywood mourned one of its greatest stars, while Bacall became the widow of a man whose legend would only grow. Verita remained in the background, carrying a story she would not publicly tell for another quarter-century.
Then She Waited 25 Years
In 1982, Verita published Bogie and Me: A Love Story. She said stories about her connection to Bogart had begun appearing elsewhere and that she wanted to tell the story in her own words. The woman Hollywood knew as the hairdresser was now claiming she had secretly shared Bogart with Bacall for more than a decade.
Warner Bros., Wikimedia Commons
The Book Took a Beating
The memoir received plenty of attention, but at least one major trade review was brutal. Kirkus Reviews dismissed it as thin, dull and vaguely sad, while noting that parts of Verita’s story were also appearing in the tabloid Star. Bogart had been gone for 25 years and could no longer offer his version.
Trailer screenshot, Wikimedia Commons
Bogart’s Son Was Not Convinced
Stephen Bogart later confronted Verita’s story in Bogart: In Search of My Father. “Is any of this true? Is all of it true? I don’t know,” he wrote. But he also made his position clear: he did not believe his father had affairs after marrying Bacall and disliked accusations made after Bogart could no longer deny them.
ullstein bild Dtl, Getty Images
One Biographer Looked Again
Biographer William J. Mann accepted that Bogart and Verita had a romantic relationship before Bacall entered the picture. However, he was far more cautious about Verita’s claims after the marriage. Mann suggested their later connection was most likely emotional rather than a continuing physical affair.
Trailer screenshot, Wikimedia Commons
Bacall May Have Known She Mattered
Mann has also suggested that Bacall understood Verita remained important to Bogart, even if she was probably uncomfortable with their closeness. Verita was not hidden from the family. She was invited inside, traveled with Bogart and occupied a place in his life that could not be dismissed as one occasional visit from a hairdresser.
Verita Never Took It Back
Verita continued discussing Bogart for the rest of her life. She opened a Hollywood restaurant, later operated a New Orleans piano bar named Bogie and Me and reportedly called herself “Bacall’s worst nightmare.” Whether people believed her or not, she had no intention of quietly returning to the background.
Elmer Fryer, Wikimedia Commons
The Truth Went With Bogart
There is no doubt that Verita was genuinely close to Bogart. She worked for him, traveled with him, sailed with him and entered his family circle. Whether that closeness became the long affair she described remains impossible to prove. Bogart never answered the claim—and Verita waited until he never could.
Silver Screen Collection, Getty Images
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