TV legend Heidrun von Goessel: She reveals her dramatic story

After her time as a mannequin (now a model) in the 1960s and successful Miss pageants in the 1970s, Heidrun von Goessel (80) made a career in television as a program announcer. But behind the glamorous facade there was a moving fate that she is now making public for the first time in her autobiography “Unvarnished Insights”.

She married her first husband in 1963 when she was only 19 years old. A marriage that was ill-fated from the start because her husband was gay. “At that time I didn’t even know what it meant to be gay,” she remembers in an interview with the magazine “Bunte”.

The truth came to light when she found a letter. “It said that he would never be happy with a woman – and that he should come back to her,” says von Goessel. After an argument about this, her husband left and she was left alone with their two-week-old son Oliver (59). In her distress, she turned on the gas tap at night – but her neighbor saved her life.

But that’s not enough. Her husband at the time was not the biological father of her son, she unpacks another detail from her family history. But she didn’t know that at the time, she says, and talks about getting to know “the producer” during a job as a mannequin. Although she never drank alcohol, she woke up the morning after a fashion show with “an absolute movie tear.” It was immediately clear to her that something was wrong.

Two paternity tests later brought clarity. “The one hairdresser with whom I had flirted a bit was actually the producer,” says Heidrun von Goessel and adds: “But I didn’t knowingly sleep with him, he must have met me that evening at the bar K.- o.-drops in my drink.”

Her own father then demanded the wedding, but she didn’t want to. Eventually she married a completely different person, Kurt von Goessel, also because he was “very kind and great” with her son.

After several failed marriages, Heidrun von Goessel has now been in a relationship with Gerd Grunwald (83) for two years. “We love each other, he does everything for me, takes great care of me,” the TV legend enthuses about her partner.