Oscar winner Jodie Foster plans to tell her beloved sons who their father is when they turn 21, the mother of the star’s best friend claimed today.
The usually fiercely private actress, 50, was the talk of the Golden Globes on Sunday night after she openly discussed her sexuality and made a moving tribute to her former girlfriend and co-parent Cydney Bernard.
Watching on proudly were her two sons, Charles, 14, and Kit, 12, whose paternity has never been revealed.
But speaking to MailOnline, the Reverend Beverly Bates, 75, revealed that her son, the late Hollywood producer Randy Stone, who is rumoured to be the boys’ real father, treated them as if they were his own.
She said: ‘Randy told me that Jodie said she’ll tell the boys who their father is when they’re 21.
‘He said he could never tell me because Jodie was his best friend. He said ‘mom, I can’t discuss this with you’. He told me he had had to sign documents, it was a secret he took to his grave, that was how much he loved Jodie.
‘He said ‘I can’t break my promise to Jodie’ – and he kept his promise to her.’
Jodie spoke out while accepting the Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles, while her boys and Cydney, 59, looked on.
The Silence of the Lambs star remained close with Randy, an Oscar and Emmy winning producer and prominent gay rights activist, up until his death from heart failure in February 2007, and referred to him as her ‘best friend’ at the Oscars in 2007.
Speaking from her home in Hawaii, Rev. Beverly added: ‘I would love to know if Randy is the boys’ father, I personally think he gave Jodie the gift, but she will never tell me.
‘And Randy made an agreement with Jodie that he would never tell. I know the boys have red hair and freckles, that’s not from our family – but Jodie’s side.
‘To the boys he was ‘Uncle Randy’. He took them everywhere with him and cared for them as if they were his own.
‘When Jodie went away on location, he moved in and helped Cyd look after them. He was their father figure.
Describing Jodie as a ‘beautiful mother’, Rev. Beverly said the star wanted to keep the boys’ paternity a secret after being left haunted by John Hinckley’s bid to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981 – which he claimed he plotted to impress Foster after becoming infatuated with the actress.
She said: ‘She’s not paranoid, but she is very very careful, and who can blame her, some nuthead could try and get the boys.’
Randy served as executive producer for the film Little Man Tate, Jodie’s directorial debut.
And in 2007, sources told the Mail that Randy had long tried to persuade Miss Foster, who won Oscars for her roles as a rape victim in The Accused and as FBI agent Clarice Starling in The Silence Of The Lambs, to go public and admit she was gay.
At the time, sources said she decided to come out after attending a Christmas gala in aid of the charity established by Stone to help gay teenagers who might be considering suicide.
Two days later, she appeared at Hollywood’s annual Entertainment Power 100 breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel and acknowledged Cydney for the first time, thanking: ‘My beautiful Cydney, who sticks by me through all the rotten and the bliss.’
According to one of her associates: ‘It was her way of honouring Randy. “She has always been intensely private and gone to extraordinary lengths to keep her relationship with Cydney a secret.
‘But he felt that she should come out, because it might offer help to young people struggling with their sexuality.’
In the past, Jodie had been been a secret donor to Randy’s charity, the Trevor Project, giving more than £300,000 to the Trevor Project, named after the short film, Trevor, for which Stone won an Academy Award in 1994. The charity aims to help young people struggling with their sexuality
Speaking on Sunday night, Jodie left many of the A list crowd in tears as she said: ‘I guess I just have just a sudden urge to say something that I’ve never really been able to air in public.
‘[It’s] a declaration that I’m a little nervous about – but maybe not quite as nervous as my publicist right now. I’m just going to put it out there – loud and proud. I’m single.’
She continued: ‘This is not going to be a big coming out speech tonight because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the stone age – in those very quaint days when a fragile girl would open up to trusted friends and family and coworkers and then gradually proudly to everyone who knew her.
‘But now apparently I’m told that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a primetime reality show.’
She then thanked her ‘heroic co-parent, my ex partner in love, but righteous soul sister in life. My confessor… most beloved BFF of 20 years, Cydney Bernard.
‘Thank you, Cyd. I am so proud of our modern family, our amazing sons, Charlie and Kit who are my reason to breathe and to evolve. … Boys, in case you didn’t know it, this song, like all of this, this song is for you.’
Her sons smiled proudly as they watched from the audience.
The former couple met on the set of the film Sommersby in 1993 and had two sons, but they split in May 2008 after 14 years together.
Jodie was then linked with writer and producer Cindy Mort, although she is believed to have been left heartbroken after Cindy ended the romance in September 2009.
Rev Beverly, who had spent Christmas at Jodie’s house before, said the last she knew Jodie had been dating a South American athlete.
The last time she saw Jodie, she added, was at Randy’s funeral, which was followed by a celebration of his life at the Beverly Hotel.
Speaking about Jodie’s speech, she said: ‘Randy would be so proud of Jodie.’
Randy, who was married to Barbra Streisand’s sister, Roslyn Kind, before announcing his homosexuality, added: ‘When Randy came out, I was shocked, I didn’t deal with it very well, I had to have counselling, but then I realised that being gay is not a choice, you are born gay.
‘I have Randy’s ashes here and I miss him every day.’
