James Hart

She turned over one morning and said, ‘I think you might be gay,’ and I was very defensive and in denial in some deep way. But then we began to explore together and see what we could find out together and see if we could have a marriage that could last through that news. We tried very hard, more credit to her than me because she wasn’t frightened like I was. She wasn’t afraid of it… One of the wonders of Carly is her insistence on truth in a rather vigorous way.

It was a slow unveiling of my sexuality that was of course, very difficult for us, and then… I wind up as a crack cocaine addict [in 2002] after having been sober for 21 years. And Carly went through all of that with me. So the unraveling is rather dramatic.

I was beginning to wonder about being bisexual, and when I met Carly, all doubts about my sexuality disappeared. I’d never been straighter in my life. And so I just thought, ‘Well, I was wrong.’.

We told her, ‘Look, we don’t want to do the usual dumb thing. What would you like for your birthday?’ and a couple days later, she called Carly and said, ‘Is Jim friends with Alec Baldwin? Is that true?’ Carly said 'yes' and she said, ‘Do you think Alec would be my date for my birthday?’ I called Alec and he said, ‘Absolutely! I’m there!’ And so, we went to the theater. He was more of her escort than a date. But it was such a fun evening.

It was odd in the sense that the ghost of any former lover of anyone can be invasive. But particularly when he’s as big a star as she is.