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‘HELLO, DOLLY!’ LEGEND ENDURED 42 YEARS OF ABUSE
BUBBLY performer Carol Channing long harbored the heartbreak of being a battered wife — and carried the emotional scars to her grave!
When the “Hello, Dolly!” legend died at 97 on Jan. 15 at her Rancho Mirage, Calif., home, insiders said she was still haunted by the memories of her horrific 42-year marriage to her exmanager Charles Lowe.
In June 1998, the beloved Broadway star shocked the world when she told The National ENQUIRER her third husband physically and mentally abused her — and that the couple had sex “only twice” after their 1956 wedding! “Charles never allowed me to get close to him. I don’t know why … I never functioned as a wife for him. He didn’t want me to be,” Carol told The ENQUIRER. “When he was sick, he wouldn’t allow me to nurse him or look after him — only his friend,” Carol said, referring to Charles’ special pal Wally Seawell, a Hollywood photographer who sometimes even lived with them!
Carol also confessed Charles had squandered ALL of her money, forcing the Tony Award–winning star to work well into her 70s because he had burned through her cash “like a drunken sailor!”
“Every check I earned went straight to him,” she said. “I have no idea how much money he spent!”
Carol filed for divorce in 1998, but was freed from her decades-long agony the very next year when strokestricken Charles died at 87 years old.
After he passed, she gushed: “For the first time in years, I feel safe, secure and surrounded by love.”
Friends said Carol tried to forgive her late husband, but she was more relieved than grieved!
“Charles lived a good life,” she declared, “and now I want to get on with mine!”