Richard Pryor’s widow: There’s no shame that my husband had sex with Marlon Brando
One of the little pearls that Quincy Jones dropped in a headline-making interview with Vulture this week was that his long-time friend Marlon Brando would have sex with “anything.”
Then, Jones named names.
“He could dance his a** off,” Jones said of Brando. “He was the most charming motherf***er you ever met. He’d f*** anything. Anything! He’d f*** a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye.”
The part about the Brando-Pryor relationship caught some of the comedian’s fans by surprise.
On Wednesday, Pryor’s widow confirmed to TMZ that her late husband had sex with Brando.
“It was the ’70s! Drugs were still good, especially quaaludes,” Jennifer Lee Pryor, who was married twice to the comedian, told TMZ. “If you did enough cocaine, you’d f*** a radiator and send it flowers in the morning.”
SO entertained by @JenniferLPryor's response to the claims of Richard Pryor's "relations" with Marlon Brando... I seriously cannot WAIT to see the diaries she speaks of! He truly was an original, and the more you learn about him, the more you love him. At least, I do!
— Kezia Captures (@KeziaCaptures) February 8, 2018
She said Pryor was open about his bisexuality with friends and would not be ashamed that Jones talked about it publicly.
Pryor, who died in 2005, kept a diary in which he wrote about his sexuality, and she plans to release it later this year, she said.
On Wednesday she responded to people’s comments on Twitter about her husband and Brando with the hashtag #NoShame.
“If you listen to Richard’s comedy - the early stuff - he was way ahead of his time on gay rights!!! #noshame,” she tweeted.
If you listen to Richard's comedy---the early stuff---he was way ahead of his time on gay rights!!! #noshame
— Jennifer Lee Pryor (@JenniferLPryor) February 8, 2018
Some fans, including actor Don Cheadle, recalled Pryor talking in his comedy act about having sex with men. Others remembered a 1977 roast where Pryor talked about it, but people laughed because they thought he was joking.
he said it himself in his early “stand-up.” it didn’t really sound like he was joking then. didn’t know this was a revelation to everybody. https://t.co/mXh7Zyhewe
— Don Cheadle (@DonCheadle) February 7, 2018
The funniest part of this is people claiming Marlon Brando and Richard Pryor's names are being sullied as if 1. Being gay or bi is anything negative and 2. both men weren't open about their sexuality when they were alive. Pryor openly joked & did interviews about it.
— Simply TC (Not From Concentrate) (@BienSur_JeTaime) February 7, 2018
Brando and Richard Pryor had sex. pic.twitter.com/qerripudJo
— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) February 7, 2018
Both Pryor and Brando were married multiple times. Pryor was married seven times to five different women and had seven children, according to People.
Brando, who died in 2004, was married three times and fathered at least 11 children. He spoke openly about his sexuality.
“Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news,” the “Godfather” star told a French journalist in 1976, according to People.
“Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2018 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Richard Pryor’s widow: There’s no shame that my husband had sex with Marlon Brando."