Editing Daphne du Maurier (section)

===Relationships===
''The Daphne du Maurier Companion'', edited by Helen Taylor, includes Taylor's claims that du Maurier confessed to her in 1965 that she had had an [[incestuous]] relationship with her father and that he had been a violent alcoholic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Helen|title=The Daphne du Maurier Companion|location=London|publisher=Virago UK|year=2008|isbn=978-1844082353}}</ref> Du Maurier stated in her memoirs that because her father had wanted a son,<ref name=ft/> she became a [[tomboy]], in an attempt to get the parental approval she would have had, had she been born a boy.

In correspondence that her family released to biographer Margaret Forster, du Maurier explained to a trusted few people that she felt her personality comprised two distinct people – the loving wife and mother side she showed to the world, and the lover side, a "decidedly male energy", hidden from virtually everyone, which  was the power behind her artistic creativity. According to Forster's biography, du Maurier believed the "male energy" propelled her writing.<ref>Daphne du Maurier, ''Myself When Young'', Victor Gollancz.</ref>

After du Maurier's death in 1989, some writers speculated about her alleged intimate physical relationships with a number of women,<ref name=ft/> including Ellen Doubleday, the wife of her U.S. publisher [[Nelson Doubleday]], and the actress [[Gertrude Lawrence]], as detailed in the 2007 [[BBC Two]] film, ''[[Daphne (2007 film)|Daphne]]''.<ref name=Forster/>{{efn|Du Maurier's alleged affairs with Ellen Doubleday and Gertrude Lawrence were the subject of the 2007 [[BBC Two]] film, ''[[Daphne (2007 film)|Daphne]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thorpe|first1=Vanessa|title=Du Maurier's lesbian loves on film|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/feb/11/books.media|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=11 February 2007|access-date=4 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Kregloeon|first1=Karman|title=BBC2's "Daphne" Explores Du Maurier's Bisexuality|url=http://www.afterellen.com/tv/13391-bbc2s-daphne-explores-du-mauriers-bisexuality|website=[[AfterEllen]]|date=21 May 2007|access-date=4 January 2018}}</ref>}} The children of both du Maurier and Lawrence have objected strongly to the stories about the alleged relationship between their mothers.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} 

Two years after Lawrence died, a biography of her written by her widower, Richard Aldrich, went into detail about a friendship between her and du Maurier that had begun in 1948 when Lawrence had accepted the lead role in du Maurier's new play ''September Tide''.<ref name="Aldrich, Richard 1954, pp. 307">{{cite book|last=Aldrich|first=Richard|title=Gertrude Lawrence As Mrs. A.|location=New York|publisher=Greystone Press|year=1954|pages=307–8}}</ref> Aldrich said that Lawrence had toured Britain in the play in 1948 and continued with it in London's [[West End (London)|West End]] theatre district through 1949, and that later du Maurier visited them at their home in the United States.<ref name="Aldrich, Richard 1954, pp. 307"/> Aldrich made no mention of a possible [[same-sex relationship]].<ref name="Aldrich, Richard 1954, pp. 307"/>