Watch Trailer for Netflix's New Doc About 65+ Year Lesbian Couple

Terry Donahue, who helped inspire 'A League of Their Own' and Pat Henschel will bring tears to your eyes.

Mikelle Street

Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.

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Mikelle Street

April 22 2020 1:15 PM EST

April 23 2020 4:27 AM EST

MikelleStreet

Prepare your tissues!

In a new documentary produced by Ryan Murphy, Alexa L. Fogel, and Brendan Mason, Netflix tells the story of an incredible 65+ year love between Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel. Donahue is known to some as she was a part of the women's professional baseball league that helped to inspire the 1992 film A League of Her Own-- Broad City's Abbi Jacobson is working on a new series based on the project for Amazon. But to Henschel, Donahue was simply a longtime partner.

The Netflix documentary, titled A Secret Love goes back to the first time they met in Chicago and tells the story of this pair: of how they had to appear as just friends to many; how they did or did not come out to their conservative families; and deciding on whether to get married or not. "Facing the hardships of aging and illness, their love proves resilient as they enter the home stretch," a press release says.

To that point, the trailer opens with the pair visiting what seems to be a retirement community.

"We do not have same-sex couples but we do have family members that are," a woman, who we assume to work with the community, says.

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"Well, if there were, would they be accepted?" Henschel asks. "Because we are a couple."

According to a new feature in TIME about the film, the women fell in love with 1947. Though they maintained a relationship and were "essentially inseperable," they kept their love secret with many assuming they were just roommates, good friends, or cousins. The feature says that in the movie, Henschel states that she dated a few men before meeting Donahue at 18. As Donahue would play, Henschel would travel with the team to watch her play and eventually the two moved to Chicago together. Donahue died in 2019 at age 93 but filming was done from 2013 to 2018.

The project, which launches globally on April 29, will add to a slate of lesbian-specific content on or scheduled to appear on Netflix. It will be followed days later by The Half of It, Alice Wu's newest project, and preceded by the dark romantic drama Feel Good. Looks like 2020 is the year of the lesbian at the massive streamer!