The following article contains references to racism,sexual assault, domestic abuse, and suicide.
Having endured racism, sexism, and abuse, Moreno’s experiences remain salient today.
Subsequently, she is defiant in wanting to tell her story to the world.
“I promised myself I would not indulge in any bulls***.
… At my age, what the hell am I protecting, anyway?
I have the power to give people the truth and I think that can be immensely helpful.”
Throughout her multiple traumas, Rivera has persevered.
Get ready to cry as we run down tragic details about Rita Moreno’s life.
“When you’re little, you’re told you’re not worth anything, you believe it.”
She was also typecast.
It dismayed me; I began to feel demeaned, that my dignity was on the line."
She later left Moreno’s father and relocated to New York.
However, a hurt Moreno rejected her absent father and never saw him again.
Initially, Francisco was supposed to eventually join Moreno in New York.
As Moreno toldVulture, her mom initially couldn’t afford to care for two kids.
“I tried to find him, and couldn’t ever make contact,” she toldSFGate.
“I heard he died.”
She was also physically abused by her mom.
“My anger toward her came out much later, followed by forgiveness.”
But as the breadwinner for her impoverished family, she was forced to stay with her abusive agent.
“I didn’t value myself then.
As her career progressed, she was subjected to further torment.
But with this success came the horrors of the casting couch.
Seventy years after being sexually assaulted by her agent, Moreno bumped into him.
She accepted an invitation to have dinner with him and his wife, as she detailed to The Guardian.
She walked out and didn’t look back.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.
As a Latina, Rita Moreno was frequently reduced to sexist and stereotypical roles.
“I feel very sadfor me,” she toldThe New York Times.
“I didn’t know how to fight back.
Moreover, due to her ethnic background and beauty, she was routinely viewed as a sex object.
In an interview withYahoo!
However, she now realizes that she wasn’t inviting criticism of her appearance.
“you might dress any damn way you yo.
The actor was betrayed by friends
Hollywood is a cut-throat industry.
Rita Moreno learned this the hard way following the dissolution of a number of friendships.
All of these b****es,” she revealed (viaEntertainment Weekly).
Boy was that fun.”
“I don’t have many friends,” she said.
“And I don’t have many friends in show business either.
I don’t trust them.
The pair first met in 1954, and Moreno was instantly smitten.
“It wasn’t done for drama, that’s for sure,” she told The Guardian.
It took years for Moreno to recover from the emotional abuse that Brando inflicted.
“I was in therapy,” she told The Telegraph.
“I was in love with him for a long time after it ended.
But I knew this man was poison.
My doctor told me he was poison.
I could never see him again.”
Ultimately, Moreno chose life over Brando.
When Brando died, a photo of him and Moreno was found in his house.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available.
Call or text 988 or chat988lifeline.org.
Her lover ordered her to have an abortion, which was illegal at the time.
Moreno toldVarietythat Brando paid a doctor to perform an abortion, but the procedure went terribly wrong.
“The doctor didn’t do anything really, except make me bleed,” she told Variety.
“In other words, he didn’t do it right.
I didn’t know it then, but I could have died.
… What a dreadful mess.”
Thankfully, Moreno’s life was saved.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Moreno was devastated.
“I wept,” she toldBBC News.
“I couldn’t believe it.
I’m absolutely astonished because of what it does to very young women.
“I’m really nervous and frightened and horrified that this is taking place,” she said.
In 2010, Gordon died at the age of 90.
“It’s very touching, but it’s not morose.
“But I don’t want the audience to feel they’re being worked.”
As such, she sometimes wondered if she was better off without him.
“And for him.
My husband was a terrific man, just not a good husband.”
Speaking toThe Daily Beast, she described her husband as possessive and controlling of her every move.
“I was going insane,” she said.
“It was horrific because no one else had a clue.
I played a role for a very, very long time.”
Gordon’s death, though devastating, ultimately proved liberating for Moreno.
In January 2024, Rivera died, aged 91.
Moreno paid a heartfelt tribute to her late friend.
“Chita Rivera is eternal,” she said in a statement toPeople.
“I remember seeing her for the first time in Mr.
Wonderful and exclaiming, ‘Oh my God, who is that?’
When I found out that this astonishing creature was one of my people, I crowed with pride.”
Moreno added that she found comparisons between herself and Rivera to be an honor.
“So you’re free to say it’s an homage.”
These feelings intensified when she moved out of her large house and into a condo in 2023.
These struggles became so severe that they ended up affecting the actor’s appetite.
When her daughter, Fernanda, asked her what was wrong, Moreno struggled to articulate her feelings.
“I really didn’t understand what was happening,” she toldPeople.
“I remember thinking, ‘I can’t go on like this.’
Why is this happening?”
Subsequently, she decided to make new friends, befriending people at the grocery store.
As she gets older, Moreno has also come to terms with her mortality.
“I do think about death now,” she toldElle.
Don’t spend your life regretting that you didn’t share something with me.'”
