James Dean was blackmailed by an ex to keep their gay affair secret, new biography claims

For decades, there have been rumors that James Dean was gay, but now we're finally getting more inside details about his secret long-term relationship with a man, and we are SEATED.

Earlier this year it was announced that a new biopic focusing on James Dean is in the works based on a memoir written by the actor's classmate at UCLA, former roommate, and alleged lover William Bast. The film will focus on Dean's years-long gay relationship that had to be kept secret because the actor's career was taking off.

But a new biography released today is providing readers with all new juicy details about a second gay affair the Rebel Without a Cause star had that started with lust and ended in blackmail, Queerty reports.

The star has been written about extensively over the years since his bad-boy appeal never seems to wane, but the brand new biography, out November 19, is full of information you may have never heard before, including details about his relationship with a closeted radio director and TV producer.

In Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean, author James Colavito claims that Dean had a relationship with Rogers Brackett who he paid off to keep their relationship a secret because he was terrified of being outed as gay and starting a public scandal.

According to the biography, in the days leading up to the premiere of his hit film East of Eden in 1954, Dean paid Brackett $800 — the equivalent of over $10,000 today — as part of an agreement that remained secret for 70 years. Dean paid the older wealthy executive off even though Brackett allegedly sexually exploited Dean during their relationship.

"Implicit in the correspondence and conversations between Brackett's team and Dean's is the threat that the suit might become public, which both Brackett and Dean knew would destroy Dean's career," Colavito told the Daily Mail.

In the biography, Colavito claims that Dean met Brackett while he was struggling to pay rent after dropping out of UCLA and moving back to Santa Monica. The unemployed actor caught the eye of the exec when he took a job as a parking attendant at the CBS Studios lot. Brackett was immediately taken with the handsome soon-to-be star, offering him a role in the radio drama Alias Jane Doe and eventually letting Dean stay in his home.

"Jimmy was like a child. He behaved badly just to get attention… he was a kid I loved, sometimes parentally, sometimes not parentally," Brackett said of his age-gap relationship with Dean, according to Colavito.

The relationship apparently grew tense as Dean's career took off and he didn't need to rely on Brackett anymore. Brackett considered him to be almost like an unruly son, while Dean thought of Brackett as his "heroic equal." Eventually, Dean scored the leading role in Elia Kazan's epic East of Eden, but just before it premiered, Brackett came asking for a handout. He was now hard up for cash, having lost his job, and said that since he helped turn Dean into a star, he was owed something in return.

At first, Dean refused to give him any money, but the threat of a scandal forced his hand, and he ended up signing a letter of apology, but not before an "explosive argument" where Dean shouted, "I didn't know it was the wh*re who paid – I thought it was the other way around."

Things devolved from there, and eventually, Brackett filed suit against Dean, who ended up settling for $800 to be paid in $100 weekly installments. The actor also got Warner Bros. to pay Brackett a large "finder's fee" to keep him quiet.

"This story has never been told before, and all parties involved worked hard to make sure no one ever found out," Colavito said in his interview with the Daily Mail. "And for 70 years, no one did. The only reason we know about it today is that Dean's agent secretly kept copies of his papers hidden away for decades."