Kelly McGillis was married to men twice before coming out. Her first marriage, to Boyd Black, ended acrimoniously. Tragically, when McGillis later told Black that she'd been raped, he said he was glad, to which she responded by throwing a glass at him.
In 1989, she married businessman Fred Tillman, with whom she had two daughters. Speaking to Philadelphia Gay News, she acknowledged that she thought Tillman would be her savior from her personal turmoil. "I met Fred, and I thought, 'Fred will protect me,'" she reflected. "Nobody will ever hurt me again. ... You can only live a lie for so long without absolutely destroying yourself." The relationship was rocky from the start. Following the birth of the couple's second child, Tillman was arrested for propositioning a sex worker who turned out to be an undercover cop.
As McGillis' substance misuse worsened and her health declined, she lost custody of her daughters. However, she fought for her own recovery to get her daughters back, and significantly, that meant turning down acting roles. "I had an agent who kept calling," she told Philadelphia Gay News, "and we finally got in an argument, and I had to tell him, 'You don't seem to understand. I have to do this for my children and for myself. I have to be the best parent I know how to be.' And that's what I did." She regained custody of her children in 2001.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEpaCsrF6YvK57kGxwcGxjaHy1vsCgoJxllJrBorXLrGStp6BitLa6jKyrmqpdoLKtuNhmpJyfmaG5qr%2BO