The Truth About Betty White's Relationship With Liberace

In 1959, Liberace sued the British tabloid the Daily Mirror for libel after a 1956 item from gossip columnist William Connor, using the pen name Cassandra, called him, among other things, "fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love." As reported by The Guardian, homosexuality was illegal in Great Britain at the time, and the trial consisted of Liberace perjuring himself by denying he was gay and the Daily Mirror insisting that the column hadn't been trying to imply that he was gay. The jury found in favor of Liberace and awarded him £8,000, the modern equivalent of nearly £200,000 (per the Bank of England), or $275,000. 

As Liberace's long-term partner Scott Thorson wrote for The Wrap, the New York Daily News ran a headline reading "I'm No Homo, Says Suing Liberace," and Liberace "never again felt the need to camouflage his true nature by dating ladies." Liberace never came out and died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1987. According to Thorson, Liberace stayed in the closet even as other celebrities started coming out, saying, "I can't admit a thing unless I want to be known as the world's biggest liar."