Cult horror star Cassandra Peterson - best known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark - has shared the first picture of her secret girlfriend of 19 years after surprising fans by revealing she is a lesbian in her new memoir.
Elvira, 70, had kept her relationship with Teresa 'T' Wierson secret until now because she said she feared alienating fans.
She shared a happy picture of her partner while appearing on the Tamron Hall show.
'It's scary and exciting, but also I'm very relieved, and so is my partner,' she told Hall.
Happy couple: Cassandra Peterson (right), who is best known as Elvira, shared a snap of her secret girlfriend of 19 years Teresa 'T' Wierson (left) on Tamron Hall's show on Thursday
'Very relieved': Cassandra told Tamron Hall (right) that coming out has been both 'scary and exciting'
She added: 'Holding in secrets all the time, you know, it gives you gas.'
She previously said she wanted to be open with fans in tell-all memoir Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark, released on Tuesday.
'I'm glad to have it out there,' she wrote. 'I mean, it does worry me. I have moments where I go, 'Maybe people won't like me anymore' and 'Maybe I won't get work anymore.'
'[But] I'm happy and relieved to finally allow our secret to see the light of day.'
Peterson first began portraying horror icon Elvira in the 1980s.
The actress who played late-night horror hostess Elvira revealed she has been in a same-sex relationship with her former personal trainer Teresa 'T' Wierson since 2002 in her new memoir
In her memoir, Peterson discussed several anecdotes about her life involving romantic relationships and her other Hollywood experiences. Pictured left, Peterson performs her show 'Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark' at Knott's Scary Farm at Knott's Berry Farm on September 21, 2017 in Buena Park, California
Peterson explains that when she first noticed Wierson at the gym, she mistook her for a man.
'Often, when I was doing my pre-workout warm-up on the treadmill, I couldn't help noticing one particular trainer — tan, tattooed, and muscular — stalking across the gym floor, knit cap pulled so low over his long brown hair that it nearly covered his eyes,' she wrote, according to People.
Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson, 70, released a memoir called Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark on September 21
'A typical sexy bad boy, he was unaware he was so charismatic that he'd garnered his own unofficial fan club. Watching him from the safety of my treadmill made my heart beat faster and the time pass much more quickly.'
The pair met in 2002 when Peterson was still married to her manager Mark Pierson and the pair went to her gym Gold's Gym, where Wierson became Peterson's personal trainer.
She admitted in her book that she was never attracted to women romantically before meeting Wierson, but after seeing a movie with her following her divorce, she got an urge to kiss the other woman.
'I told her goodnight and suddenly felt compelled to kiss her — on the mouth,' she wrote in her book.
Wierson also worked as her assistant before the women became romantically involved, according to the Sun.
She also worried the relationship status would affect her work, as her Elvira character was a sex icon among men.
'Elvira has
