When actor Leslie Jordan told his mother, Peggy Ann, about his sexuality at 12, her fear was how other people would treat him. Recalling the conversation in January 2021, he said, “I told my mother I thought something was up. I didn’t even know the word ‘gay.’”
“I’m just really afraid that if you choose this path, you’ll be ridiculed,” she told him. Her advice was to “just live your life quietly.” Jordan’s recollection ended with: “I didn’t follow her advice on that one.”
His 2008 memoir, My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, began with his own introduction to that life: “I fell right out of the womb and landed in my mama’s high heels.”
He also spoke about the fear his mother felt during his drinking years. When he was jailed for DUIs in 1997, his sisters told her he was at Betty Ford.
Jordan recalled her saying, “It’s real loud there at Betty Ford.” Once she knew where he really was, he said, “My mother was so frightened for me. We went through it as a family.”
In March 2020, her home in Chattanooga became the place where he began making his lockdown Instagram videos.
Peggy Ann died on May 17, 2022, at 86. “We lost mama but she will live on forever in our memories and stories,” he wrote.
Jordan died on October 24, 2022, at 67, of sudden cardiac dysfunction. He’d been sober for more than 2 decades.